Liveris Academy Graduate
Rachel joined the Liveris Academy in 2021 after being awarded a Ravago Group Scholarship. She completed a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours), majoring in Biological and Chemical Engineering, and a Bachelor of Science majoring in Biomedical Science in 2022.
You graduated from your Bachelor of Engineering and Science in December 2022. Can you share a bit about what you have been up to since then?
Graduating was an exciting milestone that allowed me to rethink what I wanted to do with my life. Inspired by Dion Weisler's advice to the Liveris Academy in 2022, I imagined myself in retirement, telling my grandchildren about my work before retiring. I realized that I wanted to bring new technologies and companies to the world to make a positive impact on society. This was a big goal, and I needed to start somewhere.
Encouraged by my mentor Amanda Johnston-Pell, I decided to travel to explore and get inspired before I settled on a job. In total, I spent over 5 months overseas in more than 10 different countries with 3 particularly noteworthy months in Europe, visiting top universities and working at a university spin-out company from Portugal that's improving wastewater management in developing country in Africa.
Brief overview of my journey since graduating:
In 2023, I became a freelancer providing "start-up co-founder as a service" and worked with five different start-ups, handling anything from business development, strategy, community management, to HR.
Travelled to Europe for inspiration and decided I want to commercialise cutting edge research to realise their full positive impact
Decided to commercialize research outcomes from my research group at UQ's School of Chemical Engineering, a project I am still working on today.
Joined UniQuest (UQ's technology transfer office) to help even more research group commercialise their research
Currently planning a trip to the US in October 2024 to explore tech transfer and start-up ecosystems (I would love any recommendations and advice).
