Andrew Fairburn

Career

• 2010 - (present) Commercial Services Manager, Environmental Science, The University of Sheffield.
• 2002 – 2010 Laboratory Supervisor, Environmental Science, The University of Sheffield.
• 1994 – 2001 Chief Technician, Dept of Animal & Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield.
• 1989 – 1996 BSc (Hons) (The Open University)
• 1984 – 1985 LRSC Advanced Analytical Chemistry (Sheffield Hallam University)
• 1980 – 1990 Analytical Laboratory Technician, Dept of Animal & Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield.
• 1979 – 1980 Analytical Laboratory Technician, British Glass Industry Research Association.

Main activities and responsibilities

• Management responsibility for the planning, organisation, finances and day to day running of the new Environmental Laboratories within the Kroto Institute, North Campus, including analytical, microbiology, field and research laboratories and the supervision of personnel therein.
• Develop, design, run, update and refine new and existing methods/protocols on a wide and diverse range of analytical equipment. Including state of the art hyphenated techniques such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
• The areas of analytical chemistry I have expertise in, offer advice on and deal with include chromatographic (liquid and gas), spectroscopic, and thermal techniques.
• Ensure health and safety compliance in the above laboratory areas including monitoring and preparation of COSHH reports and risk assessments.
• The major items of analytical equipment I run and maintain are:

1. Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS)
2. 2 x High Performance Liquid Chromatographs (HPLC)
3. 4 x Gas Chromatographs (GC)
4. Inductively Coupled Plasma- Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS)
5. Gas Chromatograph-Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS)
6. Fourier Transform Infra Red system (FT-IR)
7. Ion Chromatography system (IC)
8. Total Carbon/Inorganic Carbon system (TIC/TOC)
9. Gravimetric Analysis system