Working in the tobacco industry

‘A lot of people don’t realise how much science goes into what we do,’ says Jenni Hawke. She is a sensory scientist at British American Tobacco (BAT), a global tobacco company that employs around 1500 scientists at its R&D centres in Southampton and Cambridge. Hawke works as part of a group charged with developing alternatives to regular cigarettes, so-called next generation products, such as e-cigarettes. Hawke and her fellow sensory scientists act as a bridge between BAT’s R&D and its consumers, managing panels of volunteers to obtain qualitative and quantitative feedback on new product designs.