Dr Bladon completed a BSc degree and PhD in Chemistry at the University of Glasgow and undertook post-doctoral research at the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and the Medical Research Council before embarking on a career in teaching. She has lectured on degree courses at the Universities of Kent at Canterbury, University College London and Queen Mary University of London, has written an undergraduate textbook on Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and, having gained a PGCE, has taught A-level chemistry to secondary school students. In her spare time Dr Bladon continues with some long term projects including bagging ‘easy’ Munros with her husband on visits to her native Scotland, photographing aspects of the life cycle of dragonflies and being a mother to a teenage daughter.