Caroline Kirk joined us as a Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry in September 2007. She moved from a position as X-ray laboratory manager in the Department of Mineralogy, the Natural History museum, a post which she held for 5 years. She completed a PhD in Solid State Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen and held a post doctoral position in the Department of Engineering Materials, University of Sheffield for 3 years. Whilst at the Natural History Museum, Caroline was involved in equipment development using bright X-ray sources and fast X-ray detectors to push lab powder diffraction techniques to their limits.