I am a biological engineer with a passion for exploiting the diverse functional capabilities of microbes to answer emerging societal challenges. We are largely focussed on metabolic engineering of microbial systems for making all sorts of products from high to medium/low value, including therapeutic proteins and polyols for bio-plastics. We also use microbes for bioremediation and resource recovery, including converting complex industrial waste streams into microbial feedstocks. More recently we have become fascinated with the concept of creating synthetic microbial communities to face some of the more complex challenges. We apply a variety of tools to uncover interactions and metabolic functions, with quantitative proteomics being one of our favourite tools. My undergraduate was in Microbiology in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at The University of Sheffield. I then spent time doing research in Chicago, USA followed a year of research in applied aspects of biosciences in Nottingham. However, I returned to Sheffield for my doctoral studies and worked at the interface of life sciences and engineering, developing quantitative proteomics tools to complement environment-focused projects with functional characterisation. After a successful PDRA funded by the Bioprocess Research Industry Club I was awarded an Independent Fellowship from NERC. Since 2015, I have led my own research team as an academic in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering (CBE). I have spent quite some time in Sheffield now, and consequently I have made an excellent base to work with academics across all faculties, and have some brilliant friends to share ideas and write grants with. However, our international portfolio of collaborators is also very strong.