Technician's Conference 2022

The inaugural 2022 Technician's conference took place on the 30 March 2022 at the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus. With just under 100 attendees, this event was the first of its kind, and enabled technicians right across the University to meet and network.

The University of Southampton’s Technician Commitment Implementation Group were delighted to welcome a number of guest speakers to this event, including the keynote speaker, Dr Clare Stevenson, a senior scientist at The John Innes Centre, Norwich, and Dr Martin Farley, Sustainable Labs Adviser (UCL), Sustainable Research Manager (KCL), Director (Green Lab Associates), FIEMA, who presented at the afternoon’s Sustainability in Laboratories and Workshops session.

Closer to home, the conference was an opportunity to celebrate the contribution made by the technical community at the University of Southampton to teaching, research, knowledge exchange and enterprise, and infrastructure.

As part of this celebration of the hard work and dedication of the University’s technical staff, Professor Philip Wright, senior vice-president, presented the first ever University of Southampton Technician of the Year Awards. These awards, sponsored by Starlab, recognised excellence in the technical community across three categories and were won by the following individuals:

• Teaching & Infrastructure Support- Janice Coles, Respiratory Technician, Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Diagnostic & Research Team, Clinical & Experimental Sciences
• Contribution to Research & Enterprise- Sanja Barkovic, Teaching Laboratory Technical Manager, School of Physics & Astronomy
• Outstanding Technical Team- Biomedical Imaging Unit

Technicians were nominated by their peers, line managers, or the staff and students they support, demonstrating that they are valued members of staff contributing to the success of students and academics at Southampton.

Additionally, the University of Southampton’s first group of technicians who have achieved Professional Registration through the Employer Champion Programme, also received their certificates at the Technicians’ Conference 2022.

James Thompson,  Specialist Electron Microscopist, FMed, CSci; Dr Katie Dexter, Experimental Officer, Biomedical Imaging Unit, FMed, CSci; Kerry Spiers-Fitzgerald, Laboratory Technical Manager & RPS, Clinical and Experimental Sciences, FMed, RSci (Registered Scientist); Dr James Orton, Specialist Technician, UK National Crystallography Service, FEPS;  and Harry Morris, Research Technician for Earth Observation, SoGES, FELS, RSci; were all presented their certificates to much applause from their technical colleagues, marking the culmination of months of hard work putting together their applications with support from Agnes Michalik, the FELS Faculty Technical Lead and Registration Assessor for the Institute of Science and Technology (IST).

The Employer Champion Programme is a partnership between the Science Council and the University of Southampton, to support technical colleagues to become professionally registered. Faculties have committed to supporting professional registration for scientific staff, with future funding agreed, so the programme can continue to run on an annual basis.

Furthermore, the conference included a poster session, where technicians, either as individuals or as teams, submitted and presented a poster detailing their ongoing projects and day to day activities. The wider University was invited to this session, so staff and students of any faculty could come and learn about the vital and varied work that technicians do at Southampton.

We would like to congratulate all technicians who received an award or certificate of professional registration, and thank those who shared their work via a poster! We would also like to thank the conference organisers for all their hard work, especially Ben Coles, Faculty Technical Manager, Faculty Central (Medicine) (staff) and Technical Lead for Visibility.

Ben, who led the conference organisation, said “It was incredibly exciting to spend the day with technical colleagues and to welcome our guest speakers to the first University of Southampton Technician’s Conference. It’s important for technicians to have an opportunity to network with each other, and share their achievements and accomplishments with the wider University.”

Following on from the success of 2022’s inaugural Technician’s Conference, it is hoped that the conference will become an annual event. We look forward to next year!