Lola Bourgeais graduated from the Department of Materials in 2024 with an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering. She has since joined Ceres as a Graduate Engineer on a two year graduate scheme. In her role, she has had the opportunity to explore various departments across the company and contribute to projects focused on fuel cells.
What is your current job?
Graduate Engineer at Ceres
What do you do in your job?
I am in a two-year grad scheme, where I get to explore different technical and business focused departments around the company. I’ve worked in Energy Materials (R&D), Inks Manufacturing, Quality Engineering and I’m going into Commercial next. I’ve been involved in different projects focused on improving the fuel cell design and understanding more about certain components of the cell.
What A-Levels (or equivalent) did you do?
I did IB higher level Maths, Chemistry and Physics.
Why you chose a career in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)?
I chose Materials because of its interdisciplinary nature. I liked the idea of being able to study something that had applications in so many different fields and requires knowledge and skills from multiple subjects.
What did you enjoy most about your MSE course?
I really enjoyed the optional modules we got to choose in year 3 and 4 as well as the many group projects (processing lab, coding challenge, design study…)
What is the coolest thing you have done in your career so far?
Leading my own mini research project where I got to play around with and analyse the chemistry of one of the solutions forming a layer of the cell.
What is your favourite material (and why)?
Bioglass. It has such interesting applications in medicine due to its ability to stimulate tissue regeneration.
What advice would you give your 16-year-old self?
It’s all going to work out. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself and try to enjoy things as they happen rather than always focusing on what’s next!