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Employee Spotlight: Dr Robert Bianchini – Technical Support Engineer

Ionoptika is very proud of its skilled and dedicated staff, who together with our loyal users make up our global community. Today we interview our Technical Support Engineer Robert Bianchini.

Robert joined our team in 2019 and is the person you come into contact with whenever you have a question or need a hand. Today we learn more about him and his job.

Employee Spotlight: Dr Robert Bianchini – Technical Support Engineer

How long have you worked at Ionoptika and what career path brought you to us?

I have been working at Ionoptika since September 2019, so almost four years to date. This is my first full time job since completing my undergraduate course and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh.

Why did you decide to study science when you were in school or university?

When I started High School, I didn’t think I would end up pursuing a career in science. In fact, I had plans to become a computer games programmer, or a journalist, even though chemistry had always been one of my better subjects.

It was only in my last couple of years in high school that I learned about Analytical and Forensic Chemistry, and its power to help study the world and resolve practical problems, whether it was finding out “who-dun-it?” in the latest CSI episode, or work out how much pollution is caused by cruise ships in Venice. But what really tipped me over to pursuing a science career was the final school year’s Chemistry project on analysing the water purity and contaminants in the local river, in which I even played the key role of wading into the river with my waterproof clothes to take water samples for the project.

Can you describe a typical day working here as a technical support engineer?

My main job as customer support is to be the first point of contact for our customers, and help them out when our systems don’t work as expected in the field, or when they have some technical questions about our systems.

There isn’t really a typical day for working in this role; I could be remote logging in to one of our customers’ J105 instruments to diagnose software issues or align a column on one day, replying to technical questions on the next day, or arranging the return of older items back to our offices for repair the following day, etc. Sometimes I get to do all the above on the same day!

When I am not helping customers, I update and expand our Service knowledge base with articles on how to solve the issues customers encountered so far, to aid our Service team should they encounter this issue again, and update our Manuals documentation, to prevent these issues from occurring in the first place.

What has been your best memory or achievement in your working life?

If you include my PhD as part of my working life, I would say that my biggest achievement was getting the planar-LIF upgrade to my PhD experiment to work, and developing the imaging data acquisition programs which allowed me to capture the images and make movies of OH radicals scattering off liquid surfaces in a 2D plane, effectively pioneering a new way to observe and study these scattering experiments.

What has been your best memory or achievement in your time at Ionoptika?

My two biggest accomplishments so far at Ionoptika have been:

  • Planning, organizing and running a tour and presentation of our company and our products for members of the local section of the Royal Society of Chemistry,
  • Assisting a customer in China with the commissioning of two of our instruments, done entirely via remote log-in.

But it is still quite early in my career, and I’m sure I will achieve many more things throughout my time here at Ionoptika.

Did you encounter any hardships in your career path?

The most difficult time in my career at Ionoptika was during the COVID pandemic during lockdown. I had only just moved into my role as Technical Support when the lockdown started, and as I didn’t have a car nor a driving licence, I couldn’t get to the office safely within the lockdown restrictions.

As such, I was working from home in a small flat all throughout lockdown, doing customer support tasks. But thanks to our Service team, I quickly learnt useful troubleshooting information, and was soon able to reply to customer enquiries on my own.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I am a very avid reader, reading anything from sci-fi and fantasy books, mystery books, comic books and manga, and online web serials and webcomics. I love reading and buying books so much that my flat is slowly turning into a small library with all the books I’ve read so far! Last I counted, I have over 400 books in my flat alone, and I’m sure I’ll be reaching 500 soon!

When not reading, I love watching movies, and going out to play card games tournaments of Magic the Gathering with my friends.

Interested in becoming part of our team? Visit our Careers page.

Employee Spotlight: Gavyn Trowbridge

Ionoptika is very proud of its skilled and dedicated staff, who together with our loyal users make up our global community. In our ongoing series, we shine the spotlight on one of our talented colleagues each month to introduce you to some of the people behind Ionoptika.

This month we move away from new hires to what will be a very familiar face to many of our customers around the world, Senior Test & Service Engineer, Gavyn Trowbridge. Gavyn is one of Ionoptika’s longest serving employees, joining the company in 2004, and today he manages our customer installations and service work around the world. We asked Gavyn for an insight into his time at Ionoptika.

"...knowing that the whole team has had a part to play in the completion of the project, and knowing I am inserting the final piece of the puzzle, whilst installing it, brings a certain joy that can't be explained" - Gavyn Trowbridge, Senior Test & Service Engineer

How long have you worked at Ionoptika and what career path brought you to us?

I joined Ionoptika in Feb 2004, having previously worked in various roles in the manufacturing sector including a PCB factory, high power micro generators, up to 100kW of power from gas turbines. I self-educated through night school and day release. The role at Ionoptika suited me because I have always been interested in taking things apart, seeing how they work, and putting them back together.

What do you enjoy most about working at Ionoptika?

I appreciate the diverse range of skills and experience we have in the factory team, and the toys are pretty cool too. We get paid to play with toys!!

But the prospect that we may be creating something that could change the world for the better is a real buzz; a pharmaceutical breakthrough? A medical research breakthrough? New things never seen before in the field?

You never know what research, or researchers you may meet in the field on a customer site. The projects that our customers work on are each fascinating in their own way!

My favourite part of the role is the final installation of the instruments: knowing that the whole team has had a part to play in the completion of the project, and knowing I am inserting the final piece of the puzzle, whilst installing it, brings a certain joy that can’t be explained.

Can you describe a typical day working at Ionoptika (normally, not in the lockdown!)

There’s never a dull moment in my day and no such thing as a typical day. One day I may be building a prototype, another fixing something, and another testing a customer system. Or just general helping of others with my long-term experience?  I also usually spend quite a lot of time on customer sites around the world.

What has been your best memory or achievement during your time at Ionoptika?

The installation of the J105 instruments is quite exciting. You never know where one might be going and it’s a real buzz to travel to global customer sites to install these systems.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Gaming, music, walking, meditation, the great outdoors. Often meditating in places of beauty.

Have you been doing anything interesting/different/new to cope with the lockdown?

Trying to stay sane!!! Making the most of not being away and making home improvements.

What are you looking forward to most once the lockdown is over?

Enjoying the great outdoors more, exploring new places. This year’s holiday was going to be an eastern European adventure, taking in 4 countries, but this is now postponed until next year!

Interested in becoming part of our team? Visit our Careers page.

Employee Spotlight: Dr Michal Ryszka

As a small company, Ionoptika is very proud of its skilled and dedicated staff, who together with our loyal users make up our global community. So each month we will be putting the spotlight on one of our talented colleagues to introduce you to some of the people behind Ionoptika.

This month, continuing the theme of new hires, we introduce Dr. Michal Ryszka, who joined Ionoptika in 2019. Michal gained his experience during postdocs in both France and the USA before joining Ionoptika as Development Engineer with special responsibility for Ionoptika’s J105 SIMS instrument.

We asked Michal for some insight into the pivotal points in his career:

Michal quotation

Why did you decide to study science when you were at school or university?

I was always interested in how things work, both in terms of science and technology, so when I was in high school and it came down to choosing what I want to study at University it was really an easy choice. I went for applied physics at Gdansk University of Technology. I got interested in atomic and molecular physics, so after getting a degree in science and engineering I went for a PhD at the Open University in the UK in Chemical Physics.

What do you enjoy most about working at Ionoptika?

One of the most exciting parts of my job is being involved in the development of a cutting-edge technology.  Knowing how many applications benefit from our products is really motivating!

Can you describe a typical day working at Ionoptika (normally, not during the lockdown!)

I spend most of my time running ion simulations and analysing results for a future development project. I am also involved in development projects run by other colleagues. I can be also found with my hands on the J’s currently being built, tweaking and tuning.

What has been your best memory or achievement in your career?

My best memory is of the day when I finally recorded first hydrated DNA base cluster ions in an experimental setup I had been developing for my PhD project.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Whenever the weather allows it, I like mounting biking. I also like reading books and playing video games.

Have you been doing anything interesting/different/new to cope with the lockdown?

I am trying to stay fit by riding on my turbo trainer. I have also been doing lots of research for a project I am looking forward to after the lockdown is over.

What are you looking forward to most once the lockdown is over?

I’m planning to buy a van and turn it into a campervan, then take it for mountain biking trips around the UK and the continent.

You can catch up with Michal and the rest of the Ionoptika team at various conferences throughout the year. Interested in becoming part of our team? Visit our Careers page.