From blooms to breakthroughs: The ‘flowery’ journey into process intensification, entrepreneurship and academia

This article is a reflection of my journey into academia through what I perceive to be an unconventional pathway. I always knew I wanted an academic career and had a fair plan as to how I would achieve it. What I hadn't anticipated was the opportunities which cropped up along the way which was not part of the original plan but have enabled me significantly to achieve my career goals as an early career researcher. I moved from India to the UK for my PhD studies at the University of Bath and this was my first introduction to process intensification (PI). The PhD journey was a customised doctoral training program, created by me for me! As an international student with a part-funded PhD position meant I was working part-time in teaching and student support roles but also ensuring I wasn't missing out on training opportunities as part of the PhD program. This involved being proactive about applying for funding for conferences, research placement and training opportunities like public engagement. This led me to think about research impact from the very beginning and I was able to demonstrate the value of the bursaries for my career development and showcase the research capabilities of my research group and the University. I will highlight two examples in this article which demonstrate the outcomes of my PhD beyond research papers: (i) the journey of turning an idea into a research vision and (ii) learnings for an academic career through starting a company. The conclusion of this article features an outlook for my research vision of integrating PI and biomass valorisation to achieve distributed manufacturing at a community level.