Jen Adcott – the brains behind the machines

02 Jun 2025

Meet our Royce technician featured on UKRI’s 101 jobs that change the world

“I really like the mechanical testing where you can just smash stuff up!”

Jen Adcott, Specialist Technician at our Henry Royce Institute materials research centre, explains just one of the attractions of her work in a film for UKRI’s 101 jobs that change the world, which celebrates the range of skills and talents to foster the UK’s world-class innovation system.

But it’s more than that, Jen says – it’s the creativity, the teaching and the impact that are part of her role.

“When I was little, I wanted to be a vet or a paramedic, but then I realised I’m horrendously squeamish, I just couldn’t deal with it,” she recalls.

“But it’s really nice to think what I do today does have an impact and I just never thought that would happen.”

PhD student, Joe Lynch, making ear implants for children affected by the congenital condition Microtia, testifies to that: “People like Jen are invaluable in our research. They help us set up our experiments, they maintain all the lovely equipment, they train us on how to use it and they’re there to ask any questions.”

So, working with the “really cool stuff” at Royce, Jen helps bring our ideas to life.

You can watch Jen at:

More information

For more information, visit:

• UKRI 101 jobs that change the world
• Henry Royce Institute
• Jen Adcott, Henry Royce Institute