Hi, my name is Ailidh. I have just graduated from the University of St Andrews and I spent this summer as the Experimental Crystallisation Saltire Intern at GSK Montrose.
Starting out as a new graduate can be overwhelming, but I am so pleased that I entered the Saltire Programme. Its internship scheme has allowed me to gain valuable lab experience but that doesn’t begin to describe the level of support provided by the Saltire mentors who pointed me towards the GSK internship.
Towards the end of my degree, after exposure to academic research, I was seeking industry experience and thought the Saltire Programme might provide me with access to that. Step one was the assessment centre, which was something I had never done before. Having to give a 5-minute presentation only heightened my fears but the Saltire team was so welcoming, and we were given the chance to get to know the other candidates before we all went through the assessment together.
The next step was to find a position through the programme. When I initially saw the Experimental Crystallisation Internship at GSK, asking for chemistry students only, I assumed I did not meet the requirements as a student in the School of Biology. And that might have been where my story ended, but as my priorities shifted towards my fourth-year workload, I got a call from Anna from the Saltire team. She encouraged me to go for the internship having checked with GSK that I would be eligible. As soon as I saw that the project was on the prescription drug, Salbutamol, which I take for my asthma, I knew I had to apply.
Next thing I knew, I was shortlisted for my first serious job interview. I was wracked with nerves but my interviewers were friendly and approachable, and I felt as though I had really clicked with David, the person who would be my potential supervisor. The interview was on a Friday, and by the following Monday, I had received a call informing me that I had been accepted for the role.
(In case you’re wondering, there were other life science roles offered through the Saltire programme, these were just posted after I had accepted the GSK internship.)
GSK Montrose is an industrial plant on the edge of a quiet town in Angus. I started in the summer with my fellow Saltire interns: Alex, Abigail, and Gemma. We all hit it off instantly, and just having them with me immediately calmed my nerves. Doing my induction with others in the exact same position as me, meant that I didn't have those typical feelings of being out of my depth in a new environment. It also helped that everyone at GSK was so friendly! Everyone on site, especially our Saltire hosts, Danielle and Steph, and my supervisor David, did a fantastic job at making us feel welcome.
My project was looking at the process of salbutamol synthesis and how to make the product outputs a more consistent and uniform. I spent a lot of time early in the internship reading up on research and getting to see how the final product was produced at an industrial level.
Reading up on Design of Experiments (DoE), the statistical method of conducting research that I would be using for this experiment, completely changed the way I think about scientific investigations. I also got to shadow my supervisor and learn about his role as a Process Chemist. In my first week, he was investigating issues on the manufacturing plant. It felt like doing detective work, hearing insights from people across many departments and then watching David unravel the chemistry to discover what had happened. After being completely lost on the first day, by day three, I had caught up enough to even provide my own investigation ideas.
The nature of this internship, conducting many rounds of the same synthesis, was perfect for me. I absolutely love learning and perfecting a process, watching myself improve the more I do it. It was extremely rewarding to learn how to synthesise the batch stocks by myself however, I especially enjoyed the actual experimentation part of this project, getting to see the delicate relationships between our key variables and how they interacted with each other.
By the end of my internship, I felt that I had gained an in-depth understanding of the crystallisation process and I was able to look at each run of our DoE plan and predict the outcome of each experiment before performing it. One of the highlights of my internship was presenting my work to the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) with the other interns at the end of our projects. Being able to demonstrate the value of these Saltire internships, not just for us as the students but for the host companies, was so rewarding. Taking questions from the SLT, I could see how they had a vested interest in my work. Their genuine interest and questions made me realise that, even unfinished, my project had real value: it showed clear potential to improve processes and reduce waste on site.
My Saltire internship has truly been an incredible experience. I’m extremely grateful to Danielle for advocating for the extension of my internship so I could really get to grips with lab work and my experiments.
My supervisor David was the best. He always led with a positive attitude, made me feel comfortable asking questions and made sure that I was never discouraged when things didn't work or when I did something wrong in the lab. And of course, my fellow Saltire scholars made the experience as fun as it was. Although we were all in different departments, we all supported each other. Spending time with them out of work was a wonderful extension to my Saltire experience. My internship truly wouldn’t have been the same without them.
To conclude, this internship has increased my confidence as well as introduced me to working in an industrial chemistry lab with completely unfamiliar equipment. I now feel open to pursuing more chemistry roles where I previously thought I might not have the qualifications. The pharmaceutical industry was a complete mystery to me before my internship but now I can see it as a potential career path.
The Saltire Scholars Programme has provided me with invaluable life lessons and skills, and I had tons of fun doing it. Not to mention, I now have an entire network of past and current Saltire scholars to reach out to and connect with while forging my future career path. I am now thrilled to be promoting the programme and helping the Saltire team as a Saltire Brand Ambassador. I would encourage anyone who is considering the Saltire Scholars Programme, no matter your discipline, to put any doubts aside and just go for it!
