Profile

I am a 3rd year PhD student working on a technique called “electrospray deposition”. This involves taking a liquid (normally a solution containing some interesting molecules) and squirt it out of a small capillary tube. We apply a large electric field which causes the liquid break up into loads of tiny drops that we fire into a vacuum chamber (we use loads of pumps to suck all the air out so the pressure is one trillionth that of atmospheric pressure).

I work in lots of different places: As well as several labs in Nottingham, I frequently visit labs across Europe – most commonly a synchrotron called MAXLab in Sweden where I probably spend around one month out of every year. I therefore get to work with loads of different scientists from around the world. We call going to a synchrotron “beamtime” which is always a great experience.

Task number one is to work out what I am going to do. This could be one of many different experiments I am involved with, bits of instrument development/testing, data analysis or some boring admin stuff. I have started many different projects over the time of my PhD (and that doesn’t count the ones from my Master’s that I never finished!) – most of which are still half finished. The aim of my final year is to not start anything new and get some things finished.

I normally go into work at around 10am and leave at 6pm or 7pm. About a year ago I adopted a policy where I would not get out of bed until I knew what I was going to do when I got into work which I find works well!

I am fortunate/crazy enough to collaborate with lots of other scientists both in the physics department and in other sciences such as pharmacy. I also have these weeks of “beamtime” where I go and use large facilities in different countries. This means that often, some experiments become higher priority than others so working out what to do is often a task of prioritising and working to deadlines.

I also sit on the outreach committee, postgraduate committee, safety committee and am a member of the safety operations group… so I also attend more meetings than the average student!

Finally, I am a freelance sound, lighting and AV technician in the live events and theatre industry – often I spend evenings or weekends doing this. I really enjoy the contrast to the day job.

So in summary: I am a very busy person!