Lynsey Wheeldon Profile

Lab Manager at Sercon Analytical, Lynsey Wheeldon, was always interested in science and nature as a child. Her career aspirations alternated between astronaut, palaeontologist, and vet! She finally settled on Biochemistry as a degree subject as it covered a broad range of the areas she was interested in.

Lynsey wanted to stay local to study; partly so she could live at home and partly because she was working 2 part time jobs (pharmacy technician & assistant manager of a skate shop) which she didn’t want to give up, so she decided to take her BSc at Staffordshire University.

Her science career started at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester as a cytogenetics technologist, diagnosing chromosomal abnormalities in amniocentesis samples. While Lynsey really enjoyed the role, the commute into Manchester was untenable, so she moved to Keele University as senior biochemistry & biomedical sciences technician. That proved to be a really diverse role – molecular biology, immunology, enzyme kinetics, microbiology, GLP, practical lab skills and Lynsey stayed 14 years.

Having taken voluntary severance, Lynsey found the senior lab technician role at Iso-Analytical pretty quickly, and was promoted to analyst after 2 years: “It was a bit of a departure from my life sciences background, but I really enjoyed (and still do) learning more about mass spectroscopy in general, and specifically isotope ratio MS – the different applications, and huge variety of samples that customers send us.”

When Sercon acquired the assets of ISO Analytical, Lynsey moved to the newly formed Sercon Analytical: “The move was fairly painless, mostly thanks to everyone’s hard work and professionalism. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and helpful, while my promotion to lab manager following the move has been an enjoyable challenge – lots of new things to learn.”

Outside work, Lynsey is always happiest when outside: “My favourite thing to do with my leisure time is go hiking. I’ve hiked all over the world (the US, Europe, the Himalayas, Indonesia) but when I’m at home my favourite places to go are the Peak District and Anglesey. I also really enjoy kayaking and have a moderate houseplant obsession!”