Rick Kirkpatrick has been appointed as Technical Manager at Northumbrian Water Scientific Services Howdon Laboratory and will work in this new role alongside the Laboratory Manager at Howdon to ensure the ongoing performance of the Chemistry section. Rick has been with NWSS for over a dozen years working as a chemist in the Organic and Inorganic laboratories and has spent the past 8 years working as part of the Accreditation team.
The key areas of responsibly for Rick will be the development and review of analytical methods, and monitoring all types of data to get a holistic view of method and instrumentation performance. This will allow Rick to identify issues before they happen and ensure NWSS has a robust hardware replacement programme in place that is in line with capex constraints while still delivering exception service to our customers.
Rick has recently joined the Standing Committee of Analysts (SCA) starting with his involvement with the publication of a new book on the stability of determinands in waters.
Outside Northumbrian Water, he is keen on promoting Water Science to a wider audience through STEM activities and is an active member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) as well as a Chartered Chemist and Scientist.
We wish Rick every success in his new role.