Technician Spotlight series: Kirsty Flint

We're highlighting the varied roles and work of technicians across Harper Adams University with our Technician Spotlight.

We look at the many and varied roles our Technical Community undertake - and hear about their thoughts on their work!

In this blog, we highlight the work of Laboratories Analytical Research Technician, Kirsty Flint.

What’s involved in your work at Harper?

As part of the laboratory team, which provides support for soil, plant, crop science, agronomy, entomology, and animal nutrition, I serve as the sole dedicated Analytical Research Technician.

In my role, I am dedicated to meeting the growing demand for chromatography analysis support within researcher-funded projects.

There are many different chromatography techniques but they all have the same basic principle and that is that they separate components of a mixture.

Most people are  first introduced to this at school in science classes by adding a spot of ink onto a strip of filter paper and then standing it up in a beaker with a small amount of water.

As the water rises up through the paper the ink colours separate out. It's a simple principle which has many applications and approaches and this is what we do at Harper using a range of instrumentation including IC, TOC, GC, GC-MS, HPLC, and ICP-MS.

My focus is to ensure researchers have the access to these advanced analytical techniques to drive their projects forward.

What path led to your current role?

From pharmaceutical compound handling to HPLC-MS purification, my career has consistently focused on analytical chemistry.

Supporting development chemists with method development for diverse compound libraries, I gained expertise in this field.

After a career break, I returned to science in educational settings, eventually joining Harper Adams as an Anatomy and Soils Technician, completing a first-class chemistry degree apprenticeship.

This diverse experience led me to my current role as Analytical Research Technician, where I contribute to impactful research through specialised analysis.

In your role, how do you make a difference?

A key aspect of my new role is supporting researchers with specialised chromatography analysis.

I am focused on documenting current methods and building a library to meet diverse project needs, handling sample matrices from water to air.

I’m currently out in the field working on the Lower Peatland 3 (LP3) project, where I analyse gas samples from soil to understand how different water table levels affect greenhouse gas emissions in paludiculture compared to traditional crops.

At the same time, I’m also involved in the Paludiculture Innovation Project (PIP) -so between the two, they’re very much keeping me busy right now!

This analysis provides data crucial for promoting sustainable agricultural practices, and researchers can now budget for my analytical services within future grant proposals.

Having dedicated research technical professionals (RTPs) is important for building sustainable research - and is a growing area for Harper Adams.