A girl in a physics world. : October 2015

Friday 23 October 2015

Summer Placement is not over

Yesterday I received an email from my summer placement supervisor which included great news - my plastic tubes for the popomatics arrived! I was over the moon! :) It was so exciting to hear that something that I designed using CAD software was coming to life! I couldn't wait to see the finished product, from computer screen to reality. So I went up to the Plasma Group and had lunch with the lovely people of Plasma. My supervisor was there and greeted me with Christmas has come early for you! He had left the tubes wrapped in their packaging just waiting for me to unravel them. I couldn't contain my excitement. After lunch, I went down to the lab and got to work on unwrapping the packaging from all the plastic pieces.

It was so lovely to be back in the lab and it felt like I hadn't left. Once unwrapped the plastic pieces were SO SHINY! It certainly felt like Christmas.

Here are some pictures and a video of what I was up to this afternoon:

I'm coming home ;)

Woo! The plastic casings arrived!

The lid

This is where the balloon that shall be popped by the laser will fit through before being pumped with air

Screw holes ready for the aluminium rail to be fitted

The lids

The lid fitted onto central column

The casings all unwrapped

After this I had tea with the new PhD students - it was great to see them again and have some #PhysicsBanter

My first ever magazine article!

I am so excited to announce that my first ever magazine article has been published and is available to read here, in Catalyst Magazine.

It is an article about magnetic confinement fusion and the work of Tokamak Energy, a private UK company. Tokamak Energy aims to develop fusion energy faster using smaller machines and new technologies. Although this article is aimed for secondary school students please feel free to read and learn more about fusion!

I owe my huge thanks to Dr. Melanie Windridge and Tokamak Energy for giving me the incredible opportunity to work with them at the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2015 where I was able to meet David Sang, the chief physics editor of Catalyst Magazine. From here I was able to write an article for the magazine with the aid of Tokamak Energy and Dr. Windridge. It was great fun and the end result is better than I'd ever imagined! Hope you enjoy it!

At the Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (2015) with Tokamak Energy

Wednesday 21 October 2015

Careers Evening at my old school

Just as I was going to my lab session at university on Monday I had a quick read of my emails and found that the Careers Evening I signed up to do at my old school was tomorrow! Luckily I didn't need to prepare a presentation though otherwise I think I might have fainted! ;)

I was going to have a stand in one of the rooms of the main building of the school where a school friend of mine and myself would talk to the students (Yr10-13) about university life, A level choices, UCAS, but also share experiences of the subject we were studying, physics in my case.

So tomorrow came along (yesterday at the time of writing) and I arrived at school welcomed by the sixth form students - some of which I had helped them with their personal statements. I was given a visitors badge and went into the room that I would be in for the rest of the evening. I found that my physics teacher had left the plasma ball and the leaflets I made as well as some IOP (Institute of Physics) ones outside the room - so lovely! (Thanks Sir!) I then began setting up and the final touch was switching the plasma ball on. My old school friend was also in the room with me and he loved the plasma ball as much as I did even though he's a biochemist! ;) We went to get a few refreshments before the clock struck five. We were back in our positions and the students and parents began to come in. By six, they were flooding in!

A lot of the students had recognised me from the school newsletter from 2013! It was so nice that the students could relate to me because I used to wear the same uniform, sit in the same classroom seats and had the same teachers. For the GCSE students I spoke about A level choices which was the next biggest chapter in their lives and told them that they shouldn't rule out physics because everyone complains that it's hard or its a guy subject. I spoke about the numerous career opportunities that could await them if they chose physics and that they would stand out from many others if they had it as one of their A level choices.

To the A level students I spoke about the UCAS process, personal statement writing and how to research different university courses so that they could choose the perfect one for them. I also gave them tips on finding work experience and to the lovers of STEM I encouraged them to apply to some Exscitec courses - which I loved when I applied!

I honestly came home with such a huge smile on my face! Some of the students I saw I had mentored a few years ago and now they've grown so much! It was lovely to be a part of the school again for an evening and inspire the younger generation.

I would definitely recommend going back into your old school for a talk, careers event or any other activity and share your experience. The students will certainly appreciate it and you'd be a huge inspiration for them too!

Here are some pictures from the Careers Evening:

I am reunited with the plasma ball!

My stand

Saturday 17 October 2015

#OldSchool

A few weeks ago I was invited by my A level Physics teacher to give a talk to his new cohort of year 12s. He wanted me to show the students that even if you go to a prestigious university the people there are human and it takes hard work, dedication, organisation and perseverance to succeed. He wanted me to share my A level exerpiences including the fact that I hated physics at the start of A level, so much so that I changed it for French, had some complications at the school I had to go to for French (it was a separate school to where I was doing the rest of my A levels) and went back to Physics! And who knew that by the end of year 12 I was fully converted to loving physics and decided to study it at university!! I honestly don't know what I'd be doing if hadn't persevered with physics in year 12. Going into year 12 I wanted to go into Medicine but after a very intriguing talk about medical physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) I was in awe by this field of physics that was hidden from me all my life! For the first time I saw the usefulness of physics to society (because textbooks never really showed us why physics was important - it was always learn this equation to find this, but why?) This completely changed my view on physics and for this I am ever so grateful for the opportunity of visiting RAL - a huge thanks goes to my physics teacher!

Now I love physics so much that I do a lot of communicating physics outside uni and it would be THE dream if I could stay on after my degree and pursue a career in research! Through sharing my experiences I hope to inspire and connect with at least one member of my audience and motivate and encourage them to pursue their dreams no matter what obstacles come their way - whether that'd be stereotype issues, or finding it tough to mange the high work load or even just finding the motivation to persevere, I hope they see that there is no such thing as clever -no one is born with knowledge you can only attain it - and that they can be amazing and they can be whoever they want to be (a physicist, astronaut, medical doctor, journalist, ...) if they put their mind to it.

The talk
I arrived at school at about 10:30am and was greeted by the Head of Science, whom I had known through doing the science club at school in the past couple of years. I went up to Science and was greeted by my Physics Teacher and his year 13 students. They were doing some cool project work on particle accelerators!
Half an hour later the year 12s came into the classroom and it was almost time for me to give my talk. My physics teacher gave a quick introduction to who I was and what I was studying at university. During this time my heart was almost beating out of my chest and my hands were shaking! he handed it over to me and my voice barely came out! My voice was a little shaky at the beginning but as soon as I got into the flow of things I began to become less nervous. I spoke about the difficulties I faced during A levels and how I overcame them. Soon my talk was over and I could catch my breath! I had a few questions afterwards which was great! The students were so lovely and it was great to meet them! I stayed for a bit afterwards and helped out whilst they were doing some physics problems. I got a bit carried away and helped out with the GCSE class and the A level classes that followed. It was great to offer advice and help to the current students - it was like I was reliving the past and it brought back so many memories. I felt the students could relate to me and it just made me smile. :)

The best comment I received was this:

"You know, you're like an analogy where you're in a super dark cave and then there's this shining halo sparkly thing at the end"

and it made me smile so much and I cannot wait to talk to the next cohort next year!

My final word
Definitely go back to your old school, share your story and inspire the younger generation. The students will be thrilled to hear your story!

Saturday 10 October 2015

Saying goodbye to my summer placement

This week was a great time for me to make the most of working in the plasma group over the summer. I spoke to as many people as possible where they gave me advice, shared their stories and acted as an inspiration for me. I also got to see some cool experiments being done and some very cool data too! Everyone was so happy to share their stories and their work with me and I couldn't be more grateful. Because of their stories and all the things I've learnt and done over the summer I couldn't be more motivated to continue life in academia and in particular plasma physics! I love the fact that laser-plasma interactions can be used within the medical field where x-rays are produced and can be used for medical imaging - this is right up my street and it would be an absolute dream if I could one day be a part of this amazing field of research!

I will certainly miss going up to level 7 of the Physics Department, sitting in the office with great minds all working on cutting edge science, working in the lab and of course that physics banter! ;)

I would definitely recommend any school or undergraduate students to step outside your comfort zone and give a summer placement a go! You'll learn so many great skills, it will look amazing on your CV or personal statement and most importantly you'll make great connections that could give you a head-start in your career! For me, Exscitec, Nuffield Research Placements, UROPs (for Imperial College students) and generally Google-ing companies that would host a summer placement were the best routes to finding one. Also talk to your teachers, academic tutors or older students and ask them about their summer placements or how to apply for one and where to look - I'm sure you'll find the perfect placement! Also apply now! The earlier the better :)

If that hasn't convinced you to take on a summer placement then check out the cool things I got to work with and see over the summer in the following pictures, enjoy!