Profile

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Adam Briscoe

    • About Me:

      I am originally from Essex and now live in the North-West with my wife and two boys. I’m pretty active in the local community as a school governor and managing a local scout group. I am very much into movies and books and love anything that takes me away from reality (like superheroes and mythology and the like).

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      I have two boys that take up most of my time, taking them to swim training and galas as well as all of the other activities that they do. We’ve lived in the area for around 15 years and moved here when I accepted a job here at Victrex. Previously I had been in academia for 12 years from undergraduate to postdoctoral research.

      Among hobbies, I try to keep active and love walking in the Lake District whenever we get the opportunity. I’m also pretty keen on DIY and spend a lot of time working on improving our house.

    • My pronouns are:

      He/him

    • How I use Science in my work:

      A large aspect of my role is to assess innovative technology. We use a host of scientific experimentation and testing, mostly with mechanical testing, to make sure that any new technology is safe and effective.

      Working in medical device development means that safety has to be the first consideration when looking to adopt new technology and so I am often developing test methods that will simulate real world conditions that the devices might be subject to. It is those conditions and the acceptance criteria for progressing technology based on sound scientific principles that keeps me interested in the job.

    • My Work:

      I work in medical device technology innovation, particularly relating to orthopaedic implants. Helping create products that can mean mobility for people that would otherwise be in daily pain really motivates me in my everyday life.

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      Since moving into this role, I have had the opportunity to develop some products that have the potential to change the field of orthopaedic (hips and knees) medicine. I have spent 15 years ensuring that the implants that we are creating will deliver truly life-changing benefits to patients in need of treatments that are fundamentally different to those available today.

      I work with a number of colleagues both internally and at research institutions and hospitals, around the world to bring the best science and engineering knowledge to the designs that we ultimately manufacture into products.

    • My Typical Day:

      It’s very difficult to describe a typical day as they vary so much.

      I generally work behind my computer at my desk either in the office or, these days, at home. I start at 0830 and I work with a number of different groups and help to steer their research and testing to make sure it gives us the maximum help with our design work and gives us real answers to real questions. I spend an equal amount of my time, having meetings with the engineers and scientists and reviewing the plans and results that they have from the testing. The third aspect to my work is to take those results and compile well-reasoned and scientifically sound arguments to demonstrate that all risks have been fully mitigated.

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      I also travel a lot with my work. The majority of our customers are based in Europe, Asia and the United States. I also visit hospitals in these countries to observe and advise on surgery and the techniques that should be best employed to get the best from the implants that we have been developing.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I’d love to be able to develop some of the STEM activities education that is available at my local schools. I have seen that while there is a lot of call out from the government to increase STEM skills in the generations going through mainstream education, there seems to be a decline in the available sessions. I think that this prize could be a great seed to purchase great resources to take into school for STEM activity sessions.

      Some session ideas that I have include bottle rockets, balloon/paddle boats and lego downhill cars.

    CV

    • Education:

      The Harwich School 1992-1997 – GCSE’s

      Colchester Royal Grammar School 1997-1999 – A-Levels

      University of Southampton 1999-2002 – BEng

      University of Southampton 2002-2006 – PhD

    • Qualifications:

      10 GCSEs: Maths, English x 2, Science x 2, German, History, Drama, PE, Technology

      4 A-Levels: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, General Studies

      BEng Mechanical Engineering

      PhD Biomechanical Engineering

       

    • Work History:

      Pub Barman, McDonalds kitchen

      Sponsored student through university. I was fortunate to meet a very helpful company in my local area that were keen to support students through university, particularly in STEM subjects. They sponsored me through term time and gave me a project for each summer holiday time. This gave me great experience of working in industry, long before I had to go and find a career.

      I worked through my time at university in a variety of part time positions including working in retail and casual bar work.

      After finishing my PhD, I continued on at the university as a PostDoctoral Researcher. This was heavily engaged with a company that supported our research and I was translating that research to their product development strategy.

    • Current Job:

      I have been at Invibio for 15 years and began in a role generating research data to better understand the use of our materials in certain implant types, to encourage that particular use from our customers. Through this time my role has evolved through being a product development engineer for a revolutionary type of implant that utilises our material to my current job, looking after the technology innovation for our Knee programme.

      This job now involves me and my team, finding the next technologies in manufacturing, materials processing, design or applications of these and assessing whether these can or should be applied to our future line of knee products. We then conduct testing and analysis of these technologies to establish how best to use them and bring them to a level of confidence to enable them to be applied in a real world scenario to enhance the implants of the future.

    • Employer:

      Invibio is the medically focused arm of Victrex Plc.; a manufacturer of PEEK and PAEK based polymers. They are an offshoot from the old ICI chemical manufacturing company in the North-West. Today, we have sites throughout the world, with research and development facilities in Asia and the UK, Manufacturing and Processing plants in Europe, the US and warehousing and logistics divisions throughout the rest of the world. As Victrex, we also manufacture these polymers for a much wider variety of applications, from smart-phones to aeroplanes, from car gears to nuclear reactors. Whilst there is not a lot of our material used, it is used in a huge number of places.

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        Astronaut - but failing that, an engineer, honestly.

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Not really. A bit of a goody two shoes.

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I'd love to be working with wood, creating beautiful and useful objects for people.

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Daft Punk, Basement Jaxx, KLF, Faithless

        What's your favourite food?

        Everyone loves pizza!

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        Would love to have a dog one day, would love to become a professor, want to see my kids and family happy and successful.

        Tell us a joke.

        Three actors were going to make a movie about great composers: Sly Stallone said "I'll be Beethoven", Bruce Willis said, "I'll be Beethoven" and they both turned to Arnie as he said "I'll be Bach"!

Questions answered by Adam

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