Lauren Byrne

Drawn to Chemistry through a love of problem-solving and analysis, Lauren completed her BSc in 2022. Today, she applies her analytical skills to policy work to support others and advocate for a better care system.

Name Lauren Byrne
Degree BSc (Hons) Chemistry
Year of graduation 2022

Your Time at the University

Going to the University of Edinburgh was in some ways an inevitable goal coming from a small town in the Scottish Borders. Even though I thought I knew the city well before moving there, I can still remember getting disorientated on the Meadows in my first week!

I applied to study Chemistry because though I was interested in a range of subjects at school, there was something about Chemistry that satisfied my brain, using logic and analysis to filter through problems. In my personal statement I wrote that I used to find it annoying in chemistry that every time you learned a rule, you’d learn an exception to the rule, but it grew to be the thing I loved about the subject – a pretentious thing to say, but true! 

 

Image of alumna Lauren Byrne

Doing my degree was a whirlwind, from huge lectures at 9am in first year in places I’d only known as Fringe venues, to 48 (!) hour exams from my flat-share kitchen table during COVID. I can remember feeling so out of my depths in my labs in my first couple of years, and how alarming it was when maths went from being about numbers, to letters, to Greek letters. 

In the latter half of my degree, I got involved with the Women in STEM Society, ending up being President in my fourth year. The things that really stick with me about my degree are how it really felt like a privilege to be learning all that we did, how enjoyable and gratifying doing labs with my peers was, and how difficult it was to navigate the Joseph Black Building.

Your Experiences Since Leaving the University

Working with the EUWiSTEM Society had made me more aware of working on inequalities and with the student union, and I went quite rogue (compared to the rest of my diligent class!) and ran to be the Vice President Welfare of the Students’ Association. I was lucky to be elected to that role, where I served two terms in a wonderful and terrifying first full-time job. I also graduated after the rest of my peers after a challenging personal year, which meant studying organometallics in the morning, and meeting with University senior leadership about the cost-of-living crisis in the afternoon.

4 years of problem-solving and analytical thinking served me incredibly well in that role, working in a fast-paced environment on policy analysis and developing projects and strategies. I really enjoyed working in stakeholder engagement and trying to influence change on big issues like mental health and gender-based violence. 

From there I looked for policy roles in the third sector, and started my current role as Policy and Campaigns Lead at Care Rights UK last year. The charity supports people accessing adult social care services, and I use the lived experience of the people we support to advocate for a better care system, through policy work and campaigning. 

I think being a scientific thinker is invaluable in my current role, as I can study data and produce high quality reports. I get to use my critical thinking on complex issues, and have to be able to vary my communication for different levels of technicality. I’m proud of myself for having the confidence to try a career outside of research/industry, and very grateful it’s paid off!

Alumni Wisdom

Get involved – Being VP Welfare showed me behind the curtain of running the University, and I would often cite the School of Chemistry of a great example of community-building, school-pride, and staff and student integration. 

I was lucky to work with lots of different people in and around the school in my six years in Edinburgh, and it’s the people you meet that will make your time here!

I’d be remiss as an ex-VP Welfare to not add – ask for help if you need it.

 

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