User:Kgreenidge15/sandbox

After she left school, Katriona went to study chemistry at university. One of her biggest challenges was coping with the mathematical aspects of her course – she hadn’t studied maths A-level, but learnt what she needed by trading lessons with other students on her course. They would teach her the maths she needed while she would teach them other parts of the chemistry course.Katriona Methven is the UK and Ireland director of scientific and techno-regulatory affairs at the famous cosmetics company L’Oréal. Her role involves monitoring of the safety of cosmetics in terms of human health, ensuring that the marketing claims made for the products are based on scientific evidence, and helping to convey the science behind the products in an easy to understand manner.Katriona spent a year at GlaxoSmithKline during her degree, and after graduating, she went to work in the pharmaceutical industry. She would spend the next twenty years in various pharmaceutical companies before joining L’Oréal, and is enthusiastic about the opportunities that her degree opened up to her.

Katriona has two school-age children and recognises first-hand the difficulties that parents can face in trying to balance working in science with family life. The burdens of parenthood often fall particularly hard on women, something of which L’Oréal is fully aware. nbik