Tamara graduated from the University of Hull in 2006 with an MChem degree. Following University she worked for two years as a Technical Sales Advisor for Qmx Laboratories, and returned to academia in October 2009. She studied the synthesis of branched polymers using living anionic polymerization techniques, making a range of polystyrenes with complex architectures and architecture-dependent properties.

She successfully defended her thesis in December 2013 and moved to UCL as a postdoctoral researcher with Professor Steve Brocchini.