SMTL has had a number of staff changes since the Summer of 2021.  

In the SMTL Office, Jade and Elaine have now taken over joint management of the office as a job share, and Emma Willett joined the office team in August.

In the Summer we said goodbye to Jotika Ramnik Halai who secured a job in London with Public Health England. We wish Jotika the very best in her new role. 

The Physical Testing department recruited two new members of staff before Christmas - Rhiannon Fulker and Heath Davies. Rhiannon previously worked at L’Oreal and Fillcare and Heath came to SMTL from Swansea Bay University Health Board Mass Vaccination Center.

Quality Assurance has a new environmental monitoring technician, Katie Wilkes. Katie previously worked at the University Hospital of Wales in the Virology department, and now spends a few days each week at various hospitals around Wales testing the environmental conditions in CSSDs and HSDUs. 

Biological Testing has also recruited two new members of staff - Imogen Davies and Tess Leggiero, bringing the department back up to its full complement. Coincidentally, Tess used to work with Katie in University Hospital of Wales, although like many scientists during the pandemic, in recent months she was based in one of the Covid testing labs.  Imogen has joined us from one of Bridgend’s better known Cafes - Thunder Road cafe in Tremains Road. 

The Research and Development department has also had two new staff members - Kambiz Ashar and Tomos Rodrigues. Kambiz joined SMTL after working at the Royal Free Hospital in North London, and Tomos joined SMTL after completing a Masters of Biochemistry at Oxford University. The R&D team are currently working on multiple projects related to PPE procurement for both NHS Wales and for NHS England, as well as providing support for the Evidence Based Procurement Board.

Finally, Lisa Tully left  us this month. Lisa has been working on our residual protein detection project for the last 2 years, as well as helping out in the Biological testing laboratory during the pandemic. Lisa has a new job in North Wales, and we wish her the best of luck, not only in her new job but also with her climbing endeavours, for which she has chosen the perfect location.

We would like to extend a warm welcome to all of the new faces at SMTL.