Dr Pat James
Following her PhD in Biochemistry Pat did post doctoral research in the field of endocrinology before moving into teaching. She has been teaching Science subjects for over thirty years in both Further and Higher Education.
Although she now primarily teach Biomedical Sciences at Birmingham City University, a more recent part of her role has been delivering Masterclasses in science to local schools and colleges and she sees this as a way of recruiting future science students and developing in them a love of science. Pat has a passion for science, after delivering a session on cell biology to a group of nursing students was once asked if she got as excited over shoes and handbags as she did cells? "No competition I’m afraid!" she responded.
After graduating, Pat spent two years as a clinical biochemist at Birmingham Children’s Hospital before returning to academia and research for her PhD in the department of Biochemistry at Birmingham University, titled ”Regulation of Hepatic Glucokinase", her research involved a mixture of biochemistry, genetics and molecular biological methods. This was followed by three years of employment as a Research Fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Birmingham Women's Hospital. Pat worked within the National Association for Natural Family planning on various projects in the field of female fertility and monitoring ovulation.
In 1988 Pat joined BCU first as a visiting Lecturer, taking a full time post as a lecturer in applied human physiology in 1995 .
She has over the years taught on a wide range of course across our pre and post registration programmes. Most recently, having signed up as a STEM ambassador Pat has been actively involved in outreach sessions at local schools and colleges. For the last four years she has coordinated the University’s Stand at the Big Bang Science fair at the NEC entertaining some 70,000 school children over a four day event.