Anita Dawes

I am a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Physical Sciences at The Open University. I did my undergraduate MSci degree in Physics at University College London (1996–2000) and my PhD in the Molecular Physics Lab at University College London (2000–2003). I then joined the Astrochemistry Group at The Open University as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (2000–2006). I then embarked on a career break with the arrival of my first child in 2007 and had a 6-year break becoming a mother to three children (2007–2013). In 2013 I returned to research, rejoining the rapidly growing Astrochemistry Group at the School of Physical Science after being successful in obtaining a Daphne Jackson Fellowship (2013-2016), co-sponsored by the Open University and Science and Technology Facilities Council. This enabled me to retrain and refresh my skills and regain confidence as a researcher, allowing me to work part-time whilst looking after my young family. Towards the end of the three years, the tailor-made Daphne Jackson retraining programme paid off as I was successful in being awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (starting October 2016), continuing my work in laboratory astrochemistry.

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