Sophie Dale-Black

Contact

• workRoom C14 Nottingham Geospatial Building
  Jubilee Campus
  Wollaton Road
  Nottingham
  NG8 1BB
  UK
• work0115 84 68923
• fax0115 82 32551
• sophie.dale-black@nottingham.ac.uk
• http://www.horizon.ac.uk

Biography

In my current role, I manage a 5 year, £14M research budget within the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute here at The University of Nottingham. I manage an operations team of 4 and we provide support to a research institute comprising over 35 researchers and an additional 30 academics. My role varies every day, with requirements ranging from budget planning to personnel management to human resources and research management. In my previous role in running the EPSRC-funded Bridging the Gaps project, I helped to build new discipline-bridging collaborations across the sciences. I managed both short and long term projects, encouraging the increase and improvement in interdisciplinary research links across the University. I have organised and facilitated a wide range of discipline-bridging events, from speed-networking to sandpits. A fun job! Prior to this, I worked at Molecular Profiles, a spin-out company of The University of Nottingham. I managed small teams to fulfil client projects on pharmaceutical compounds and products using a wide range of techniques, presenting complex data for use in patent litigation cases. I also managed R+D projects and specialised in X-ray diffraction. I was rapidly promoted from Project Scientist to Senior Scientist before deciding on a career change and joining the University of Nottingham. I completed a postdoc position at the University of Newcastle in X-ray crystallography, collaborating with GlaxoSmithKline , having achieved myPhD in X-ray crystallography at Loughborough University in 2004.

Expertise Summary

I have developed transferable skills during my career that has so far spanned lab-based science, R+D project management, event management and facilitation and now operations and personnel management.

Past Research

My past research was in the area of supramolecular chemistry and X-ray crystallography. Supramolecular chemistry is the study of 'chemistry beyond the molecule' and I mainly studied molecules capable of forming extended arrays of hydrogen bonds, forming cavities and channels which can contain solvent molecules.

I also performed consultancy research for GlaxoSmithKline, investigating the molecular and supramolecular structures of new pharmaceutical drugs. This particularly involved looking at multiple forms of the same drug, as different forms can be useful in a variety of treatments due to their different solubility rates.

I have 68 peer-reviewed journal papers, published in the period 2005-2009.