Profile

My work involves making a new type of material that can be used to clean water and remove some very dangerous chemicals and bugs from it. To make the material, I am using nano-particles – these are very very very small particles that can’t be seen individually unless in a special microscope. Because they are so small they have special properties that make them very reactive, so they are perfect for reacting with, and therefore removing, any harmful chemicals or bugs in water. The hope is that my new material will not only be  used in filters that go in your taps at home, but will also help clean up water in places around the world where it presently causes many illnesses and deaths.

This kind of work is called Material Science, which is a mixture of Physics, Chemistry and Engineering. It  involves a lot of practical work in laboratories, experiments with chemicals and work on machines that look like they’ve escaped from the film The Avengers.

The contents of my days vary massively. One day I could be at my computer reading about other people’s research, writing about mine or designing new experiments. The next day I could be in the lab experimenting with various chemicals and materials or spending a day on a machine that allows you to image tiny tiny tiny things and cut holes in them.  I could be going for meetings or conferences in various parts of the country, sometimes the world, with academia or industry. And then on top of all that I have social ‘bonding’ days with my the rest of my research group – we’ve been hiking, had BBQs, been out for dinners and recently we even went for a photo-shoot (a hilarious, but slightly cringe-worthy, event).

There is massive variation from day to day and most the time you get to choose that variation, making your week much more interesting.