Profile

I am in the final year of my PhD [a 4-year long training programme where I get call myself a Dr]

On top of developing my own activities, I really enjoy organising and supporting science outreach events and volunteer my time to Pint of Science Southampton as a city Coordinator. I also sometimes write blogs on communicating science to audiences and sometimes on topics related to my work that I find interesting!

I love going to museums, the stranger, the better! My favourite museum I’ve ever visited was the tinned tomato museum🍅 – they included tasters! Currently taking suggestions for my next museum trip!

I design, make, and test new designs of sensors that can detect and measure pure beta-emitting radionuclides [these are radioactive isotopes that only emit electrons]! These types of radionuclides often come in samples that need lots of testing, filtering, and processes done to get an accurate measurement out of them in the lab. I use microfluidics [basically very tiny plumbing with channels less than 1 mm wide!] with something called the ‘Cherenkov’ radiation [this happens when electrons move faster than light in the water! and only happens when radioactive isotopes kick out electrons with a high enough energy]. Using these two methods I can see if I can measure these radioactive isotopes without all the extra lab experiments!

This means that in the future we’ll be able to monitor radioactive waste, and what is going on in cooling circuits of nuclear reactors better and without having to take material from the site that we want to measure to the lab.  This means we can tell where these radionuclides are in the environment as well as monitor some of the processes that are going on in a nuclear reactor. By having a sensor that is connected to the cooling circuit of nuclear reactors [called in-line] or in an environment where we’re not sure what kind of radionuclides are present it means that people don’t have to go in and collect samples themselves and then transport them to the lab, making everything quicker, cheaper and safer.

On Mondays or Fridays, I do virtual writing workshops to help me write up the rest of my thesis or any scientific articles that I am writing currently. It’s also nice to chat with other early career researchers.

Tuesdays The rest of the days I normally do lab work so set up my experiments in the lab for the day. All of my experiments are planned well in advance and discussed with my supervisor and the lab manager.