Unusual jobs in research

Video credit: UKRI
On-screen captions and an autogenerated transcript are available on YouTube.

Not everyone who works in science or research has a PhD. We spoke to five people who do important and unusual jobs behind the scenes in research about their career paths:

  • Terri Adams is the Glass Design and Fabrication Facility Manager for the University of Oxford
  • Gary Brannan is Keeper of Archives and Special Collections at the Borthwick Institute
  • Merryn Kent is a Research Administrator at the University of Exeter
  • Amanda Solloway was the UK Government Minister for Science between 2020 and 2021
  • Fiona Travers is a Senior Public Engagement Officer at the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.

Find out how and why they got their unusual jobs.

Last updated: 18 February 2022

Help us improve your experience by taking three minutes to tell us what you think of the UKRI website. You can also let us know if you have specific feedback or you can join UKRI’s research panel.