​Jacob has always had an affinity for engineering. He remembers enjoying maths and science throughout his school years. During A-levels, Jacob realised that full time classroom learning was not for him, as he thrives best in a practical hands-on environment. So, he decided to embark on an apprenticeship. He came to STFC, where he excelled due to a high focus on practical learning.

Once Jacob completed his apprenticeship, he was fully employed by ​ISIS to manufacture components for our instruments. Alongside this, he also worked hard to complete a part time Higher National Certificate (HNC).

Jacob became involved in a project to both design and build a model enclosure to demonstrate the production of hydrogen from an Ammonia cracking cell. This project gave new variety to his role, further broadening his knowledge. Jacob enjoyed this so much that it prompted a role change! He swiftly joined the operations support group as a technician, where he found himself involved with installing the ZOOM instrument, a SANS instrument, and supporting senior technicians on instrument upgrades. While doing all of this, Jacob put in a lot of long nights and passed his BEng degree with a ​fantastic first-class honours!

His career then shifted towards taking charge of instrument builds. With his success delivering the ZOOM instrument, Jacob proved he was perfect for heading the pre-build activities for ESS (the European Spallation source, Sweden) contributions. This is a project where he has been planning and constructing instruments for the ESS to be shipped and used over there when it is fully built. With this promotion he gained considerable knowledge of how ISIS works, as well as how best to streamline activities to achieve excellence. This included implementing a new system of documentation to ensure full communications were achieved throughout the entire project.

Combining his drive to continuously improve, engineering expertise and ability to manage technicians, Jacob successfully delivered on a range of projects, and we look forward to what he does in future!