Mieke Campforts

How did you find your way to Umicore?

During my engineering course, a thesis subject from Umicore about freeze lining caught my eye. To prepare for this, I first did a holiday job at CRD for a month in order to build a test setup for it.  After I finished my thesis, a colleague asked me to do a doctorate on the same subject as there was still a lot of research work to do in that area. Initially I intended to apply for a grant, but when I ultimately didn’t get it, Umicore paid for my doctorate.  After that I also had a chance to start working at Umicore. The great thing was that throughout this journey I was already part of the family at CRD and looking back, that meant I had already built up a good network as a student.

Can you describe your current position at Umicore?

As a metallurgist I work in the research & innovation department in Hoboken, where we are involved in a variety of long-term projects for the site there. My role is to convert the process developed by CRD into engineering, which makes it possible to design robust new processes and installations. I also have an operational background. I was a manager at the lead refinery and I also monitored certain operational aspects in my job in prevention. That means I can provide operational input at an early stage of some projects about whether or not certain things will be feasible and what will be the best way to tackle them. 

What do you like about your job?

First and foremost, I like working with metallurgy. I think it’s great to find out how nature fits together and to be able to reduce complex things that are often hard to explain to the essentials.

Plus I like opening up a specific area to make it more understandable for operators and engineers and also for the management. I enjoy being the ‘metallurgical spider in the web’ who can link all these people together. I try to make chemistry as accessible as possible, even for those who have less of an affinity with the subject, and to give them enough of an understanding of the subject so that they can do their job better.

What do you like about working at Umicore?

I like working at Umicore because of the company’s relevance to society. As an engineer, your training is very technical, but I think it is important to be able to use this knowledge to help work out solutions for actual problems such as the scarcity of raw materials or reducing our CO2 emissions. And I like using my knowledge, for example to make sure my colleagues can do their job more safely and efficiently. It's great to be creating added value for society in this way and making life better for people.

What do you look forward to when you set off to work in the morning?

I get a lot of pleasure from little things, like being with my colleagues at the office. We work hard, of course, but there is time for a laugh and for being aware of how everyone is doing too. I also like actually getting to grips with things, making things happen and solving problems. Plus I like the fact that you don’t always have to do things in the same way. You are allowed to think outside the box. 

What has been the highlight of your time at Umicore so far?

I’ve already changed jobs about five times in my career and I think it’s great to see that I’ve achieved some good things in those different places. At CRD there was a project to prevent the loss of rhodium via slag in the blast furnace, but I will always remember the upgreat! project in the Smelter. During that time I also found supporting a number of doctoral students very worthwhile. I am glad I still regularly meet the same colleagues. At the lead refinery I worked hard to make the process as transparent as possible for operators and coaches, so they could work more efficiently and in less labour-intensive ways.
Finally in prevention I was part of a team of people who worked on rolling out the new process safety standards.  

Any advice for newcomers?

Make sure you enjoy your job, that you feel your work is meaningful and that your personal values match those of your employer. There is no reason to be unhappy in your job. There are so many different options out there. Find out what makes you happy in a job, experiment and look for that so that you can go off to work with enthusiasm every day.