Frank Morton Sports Day 2025

Home advantage pays off for University of Nottingham as chemical engineering students mix preparing for work with play

The FRANK MORTON sports day begun in 1961 as a football match between chemical engineering students from the universities of Birmingham and Manchester. Come the 2025 offering, hosted by last year’s winners Nottingham, it now includes a careers fair, 11 sports competitions, and a boozy night out. More than 700 chemical engineering students across 17 British and Irish universities took part.

This year’s event opened with a careers fair tailored to chemical engineering students, sponsored by the Environment Agency and consultancy Fairheat. Other employers on show included ExxonMobil and Essar Energy Transition (formerly Essar Oil), as well as nuclear consultancy DBD.

Employers promoted their chemical engineering graduate schemes, with a focus on energy transition and what roles exist for chemical engineers away from oil and gas. Fairheat’s Avril Bullock told TCE that while heat isn’t a typical career path for chemical engineering students, “everything we do is chemical engineering”.

This was echoed in the Q&A session that followed, chaired by University of Nottingham chemical engineering professor Vince Pizzoni. The session welcomed the Environment Agency’s energy & COMAH manager Charlotte Sholl, Fairheat engineer Jake Adamson, Saint Gobain “sustainability champion” Jessica Simmons, and DBD process engineer David Ling. They discussed what jobs were available for chemical engineers away from fossil fuels and towards renewables. Simmons said: “I don’t think the jobs are going anywhere, in fact I think they are growing.” Sholl believes “there are more opportunities for chemical engineers now than there have been for decades”.