Meet the scientists!

I work in the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics which is made up of the Institutes for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) and Computational Cosmology (ICC). The ICC is home to one of the most powerful supercomputers for academic research in Britain. We use supercomputers to recreate the evolution of the Universe from soon after its very beginnings in the Big Bang, and explore how its dark side will affect its fate. The IPPP undertakes research in particle physics phenomenology, the bridge between theory and experiment in the study of the building blocks of matter in the Universe. Scientists from the IPPP collaborate with many particle physicists who work with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics near Geneva in Switzerland.

I don’t get to do too much actual science these days, but I have lots of friends in the Ogden Centre who do all the work – now I get to do the really fun part: explain what we are doing and what we are finding out about the universe and what it’s made of. I’ll talk to anyone who’ll listen about the science we do.

This is one of the great things about my job… there is no such thing as a typical day. Some days I will be out in schools talking about science and other days I may be sitting in front of a computer answering emails and dealing with administration. Other days I’ll be teaching undergraduate or postgraduate students. Days when I can talk about science are my favourites (especially when I’m visiting primary schools). One thing’s for certain, every day is guaranteed to contain lots of coffee.

And buy coffee with what’s left!