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Alison Foster: a Chemist in the World of Plants
Alison Foster has combined her education in Chemistry with her love of plants to engage in some exciting projects at the University of Oxford Botanic Gardens. This Catalyst article gives a profile of her career choices, and introduces a public engagement activity called Chemistry in the Garden.
Alison began her career in the pharmaceutical industry, after completing her degree in chemistry. She studied further and completed her PhD in Synthetic Organic Chemistry. Her love of plants then prompted a career change to horticulture, and she re-trained in Birmingham and then Oxford Botanic Gardens. Her exhibition, Chemistry in the Garden, explains some of the compounds made from plants and the chemistry used to extract, mimic and utilise them.
The article is from Catalyst: Secondary Science Review 2012, Volume 23, Issue 2.
Catalyst is a science magazine for students aged 14-19 years. Annual subscriptions to print copies of the magazine can be purchased from Mindsets.
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