Dr Jonathan Wagner speaks about their award-winning project with Sellafield, Collaborating to Develop Nuclear Chemical Engineering Skills.
Sellafield and Loughborough University have collaborated to develop and implement an education and engagement programme for chemical engineering undergraduates. This is facilitated via Sellafield staff providing the base material for an existing safety review coursework exercise (HAZOP) at Loughborough based on a nuclear processing facility.
Sellafield staff engage and interact with students to develop nuclear chemical engineering skills and increase awareness of the opportunities for chemical engineers in the sector. Doing so has enhanced the students’ experience and given them a real insight into how chemical engineering is applied in an industrial setting.
The Invisibly Leaky Pipelines project also achieved an outstanding high commendation in the Diversity and Inclusion Category. Drs Ratcliffe and Coopman commented:
The project recognises that to ensure the health and long-term prosperity of the chemical engineering community, we need to urgently tackle the invisible leaky pipelines of talented people: the progressive loss of capable individuals from careers in the sector.
At Loughborough, we are developing an innovative systems approach to tackle the systemic barriers in the community. This involves taking a much broader scope and looking at diversified career pathways and a much more comprehensive range of minoritized groups to cover the whole cycle of education and career development.
We are delighted to have been recognised for the work done to date as well as that which is planned by ourselves, the wider team involved in the work and our Royal Academy of Engineering Diversity Impact Project to develop an Inclusive Engineering Excellence Hub at Loughborough.