Technician Week 2025

The 1-5 September marks the University of Edinburgh’s Technician Week, an annual celebration of the contribution of all our technicians.

Events took place across all five campuses, including a series of specialist talks held on Monday at IRR North, and a conference which included the annual Technicians award ceremony on Wednesday.

Podcast

As part of the festivities Shonna Johnston, IRR Technology and Services Director, took part in the Technically Edinburgh podcast series.

In this Behind the Network episode, Shonna Johnston discusses the UK Technology Specialists Network (TSN), a growing community for technology specialists working across higher education and research.

IRR People: Steven McLean

In celebration of Technician Week, we spoke to IRR Technical Manager Steven McLean about his career path as a technician and role at the Institute.

What is your background?

I did an undergrad in bioscience because I found it interesting. I never had that career path in mind, but I enjoyed it. When I finished Uni, I didn’t know what to do. I considered teaching for a while but ended up getting a job at the University of Edinburgh, where I’ve been working on and off as a technician for twenty-odd years. I found that research was really good when I was young as they give you short-term contracts. You could concentrate on one project for a while and then no-questions-asked, you could go off and do something else.

Headshot of Steve at the top of a snowy mountain with hat

I’d work in the lab during the day, and bars and clubs at night. I did that for a couple of years, went off and did a couple of ski seasons, then I moved to Canada and worked in the labs and bars there. I was at the Toronto Cancer Institute but eventually came back to Edinburgh Medical School. As much as I liked being somewhere else, I ended up back in Edinburgh because it’s a really pretty city. 

While at Little France about fifteen years ago, my girlfriend at the time became pregnant and I needed a more permanent job. I took a job as Technical Manager at the Queen's Medical Research Institute (QMRI) (now Institute for Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Research (INCR)) and while I missed the lab side of work, it gave me the chance at something long term. I still got the science but also had more career progression which I had found at the time quite difficult in technician roles.

I’ve worked on skin cancer research, brain tumours, exhaust particles, pathology– I even did nail fungus at one point! You need core skills and you can learn better as you go along so it’s very transferrable. Just because you’re doing a project on nano toxicology doesn’t mean you couldn’t move to cardiovascular science. Or anything else. The biggest part of it is you have to be interested in the science as it is repetitive by nature and you can’t be motivated by the money. But the experience and flexibility that it gives you, I really like.

What are your daily jobs and responsibilities?

My job is a bit of a mixed bag that falls between the roles of health & safety and building management. I have overlap in both labs and building for things with a more specialist nature such as gases, liquid nitrogen, cold storage, and more recently sustainability.

My work day really does vary. If you ever look at my calendar it seems very empty because most of the time it’s just people coming to you with problems. I do focus more on the strategy and development side of things now but my role is mainly dealing with issues that come up. We’re focusing quite a bit on sustainability at the moment as we’ve got a big push with lab awards and the like. I think the best outcome is if when you leave, no one’s noticed what you’ve done. If you haven’t done your job, people notice the issues that come up. 

But my job can be anything. It could be a fire, could be a lab issue, could be bits of the building being blown off! A lot of the role can also be ‘firefighting’ - keeping the lab research going.  I like not being at my desk and being out doing things. The role works well for me because there’s always another hundred things that could be done. I’m continually having to triage my workflow. It is incredibly problem-solving oriented which I quite like. The flexibility is great and the people are pretty good as well! I like that you have to figure things out and find creative or inventive solutions to resolve it. It’s a lot of approaching things from different angles and challenges to overcome. I love the hands-on nature of the job and getting to deal with interesting issues.  I work long days so its nice that it occupies me, like today – I didn’t even realise it was 4pm. It keeps you going! Even if I planned the exact same day tomorrow it will probably not turn out that way. Each day is different. It’s never boring.

What do you like about working IRR?

The work that is going on is promoting human health and breaking boundaries in science. It’s nice to be associated, even if I’m not hands-on in the labs anymore. You get very interesting chat with people; we work with interesting and unique personalities. There’s a lot of neurodivergence in science and I like that – people have an interesting mindset and I find that very enjoyable to work with. You don’t get boring chat; you get interested and engaged people. The site itself is also quite pretty – you’ve got the grass, the garden and green space. The bike ride to work is great.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time?

It depends on the season. I like mountain biking and I like split boarding, which is a snowboard that can be split into skis. So, I enjoy doing that when Scotland has snow. That’s where the flexibility of the workplace comes in. I can take the day off work when the snow comes!

 

Technician Week, The University of Edinburgh

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