Profile

Photo:

Sara Velasquez

My CV

  • Education:

    I studied primary and secondary school at a bilingual school (La Estancia School) in Tegucigalpa, Central America.

    After I finishe High School I started studing Mechanical Engineering at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. I was there for 1.5 years before moving to Brazil.

    In Brazil I studied a 5 years degree in Materials Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) in Florianopolis, SC. During this degree I did a one year exchange program in France at the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Metz, Metz, France.

    After finishing my Bachelor degree I moved to Switzerland for a masters in Materials Science at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich) Zurich, Switzerland.

    Currently I’m doing a PhD in Pure and Applied Chemsitry at University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.

    • About Me:

      I was raised in Honduras (Central America). I have lived and studied in Brazil, France, Switzerland and Scotland.

    • Read more

      I currently live in Glasgow, Scotland. This is the sixth country I have lived in and I speak 4.5 languages. When I was 16, I got the dream of becoming a material scientist but my home country didn’t had that course option at the university therefore I started my journey throughout the world to follow my dream. Up till now, I have lived and studied in Brazil, France, Switzerland and Scotland. I love dogs and I’m looking forward to get a Westie to enjoy having a pup that is from the country I courrently live. During my free time I like to swim, hike and try different sports such as skiing.

      I currently have 2 dogs that still live with my family in Houduras.

      Cozy Ellie

       

      Lillie a rescued dog trying to be a scientist.

       

       

       

    • Read more

      I’m a third year PhD student at the Pure and Applied chemistry in University of Strathclyde. I currently work with an international (Scotland, Switzerland and the US) project call PIRE. This project is mostly based on working with Bioinspired Materials and Systems. I really enjoy that topic because it allows us to observe nature and get inspired by it. Just by looking arround our surrundings, we can get inspired into developing materials that nature has managed to develop on its own many many years ago.

       

      Enjoying working at the lab during my first week of my PhD

       

    • My Typical Day:

      Watch the video to enjoy a description of my typical day! But in brief, my day is based on doing what I enjoy every day!

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      My day usually starts with a 4km bike ride or walk to the university. I enjoy this transport ways as I managed to feel more connected with the ouutside world and feel prepared to spend the whole day in the lab.

      Most of the days I do experimental work that consists on planning the experiments based on the results from the previous days. After all the reactions are set up or samples are prepared I also need to do data analysis from the office.

      Many days I’m in between the chemistry lab and the materials characterization lab, which for me is very interesting as it allows be to do more interdisciplinary research and interact with more scientist from different areas.

      At the end of the day I always try to organize my results and leave a description of the things I had done in order to be prepared for the next day.

       

       


      In this video you can learn a bit more about the project I work on and what is a usual day in the lab.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would use the price money in two phases depending on the countries lockdown situation. For at home I would buy materials to do at home live experiments on social media and or website to inspire the young generation to follow a Scientific carreer path. Also I would like to build a Bioinsired materials Suitcase which will contain a small microscope and other basic materials that could be transport to different schools to do outreach experiments.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        hybrid chemist and materials scientist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        A material Scientist

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        skipping gym classes with the excuse of band practice counts...

        What's your favourite food?

        Honduran food that can't be easily found elsewhere

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        teletransportation, days with 48 hours and being able to have all my love ones in the same city.

Questions answered by Sara

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