My name is Alexander Parker. I come from Harrow in North London and I attended St. Clement Danes School in Hertfordshire. I began my undergraduate degree in 2008. During my time here, I have taken on several responsibilities, covering a range of subjects beyond my degree. Within the department, I was a student representative on the panel redesigning the undergraduate labs, sat on the Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) (students click here to leave me a message), worked for departmental open days, as well as a variety of short jobs such as writing for the university prospectus and representing the 4th year in the recent institutional review. As an undergraduate, I also took part in the Student Associate Scheme, which involved teaching science in a local school for a total of three weeks. Outside the department, I have kept up my other interests and taken on the responsibilities of both President and Social Secretary of the University Brass Band and conductor of the Wind Orchestra. I was also captain for the University Snowboard Team. This commitment to extra-curricular achievement was highlighted when in 2011 the university awarded me a Warwick Advantage Gold Award for my work as President of the Brass Band in widening participation. I have also aimed to look outwards to the local community by conducting and playing music with local groups such as the Warwick Community Band.
I have done several Work Experiences during the course of my degree. I have taken part in three URSS schemes. Firstly, I worked on the development of the undergraduate teaching labs, to improve the teaching of lab work in the department. This began by began by aiding in the design process for the new labs. I then followed this up aiding in the implementation of the carousel lab system, by testing and making improvements to all the organic chemistry experiments. The other 2 projects were back-to-back. Firstly I worked to develop and improve carbon electrodes for use in scanning electrochemical microscopy in the Electrochemistry and Interfaces group under Professor Pat Unwin. My final URSS project built on this, to use thin film carbon electrodes as pH sensitive probes. As part of these projects I presented a poster at the National Electrochemistry Conference in Bath.
Here is a fun video from the national university brass band contest this year where warwick were the second most entertaining band and I played a solo. I hope you enjoy it.