Karim Abu Nour Dettori

I chose Abertay as I had decided to take a year off to re-take some exams after finishing high school, and the lecturers at Abertay would be in contact regularly to ask for updates and see how I am doing. The lecturers have had a lasting impact on me. They always made themselves available to help out with any issues we had. They were always motivating us to do better and this really helped boost my confidence.

Personally, being away from home for the first time and going to Abertay was a little overwhelming. Then, after one week of starting the course and meeting different people, it felt like home.

The transition from University to the real world of work was not as bad as I initially thought. In fact, for me, I found it much easier, as a lot of the stuff we had to do at University was more difficult so I felt that when I left I wouldn’t find any issues with the transition due to the preparation at university. Even if you don’t end up working for a forensic laboratory, the skills you learn by studying BSc (Hons) Forensic Sciences will help you get into any type of laboratory environment.

Since leaving Abertay, I continued my studies and went down to the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. There I completed my Master’s in DNA Profiling. After that I went back home to Rome for a few months until I got an opportunity to come back to Scotland to work for Terumo Aortic. I started in the company on a temporary six-month contract. I was then made permanent. A few months later, I was promoted from Lab Technician to Graduate Product Development Scientist. My future professional aspirations are to one day have a role as a Team Leader.

The company I work for is a world leader in cardiovascular devices. My day-to-day consists of improving the current methods that are used to test our samples, determining the efficiency of different types of gelatin to ensure that they behave like the current gelatin, and writing reports with the data obtained from the tests.

My role positively impacts the lives of patients who need our devices to help them with any cardiovascular problems they might have, and any new devices being made to work better without causing the patient any distress from surgery. The role I had in mind when studying Forensic Sciences at Abertay was to go and work in a forensic laboratory or be a crime scene officer.

In the future, I'd like to be able to work on a project that not just helps people suffering from cardiovascular diseases but to potentially cure them as well.

View the BSc (Hons) Forensic Sciences course