Spotlight on new staff
Meet some of the staff members who make the School such a great place to work!
So to get to know them we asked them to tell us a little a bit about their background – you can read all about them below!
Path to this role:
Since completing my PhD at Imperial College, I’ve lived a nomadic post-doc life moving from London to Hamburg, to Lancaster and then Oxford before joining Queen’s in February last year. It’s always sad to move on but it’s been great to work with so many different researchers on a variety of projects. I’m an experimentalist and so I’ve spent a lot of time planning and running experiments to explore topics related to fundamental plasma physics, laboratory astrophysics and laser-plasma accelerators at large scale international facilities – with teams of researchers from across the globe. I’m excited to bring that research network to Queen’s.
What attracted me to this role?
While I have really enjoyed my travels, I was looking forward to setting down some roots and spending a bit more time developing my own research developing high-repetition rate experimental capability to provide deeper insight into high-intensity light-matter interactions. The Queen’s Centre for Plasma Physics has an excellent reputation for research in laser-plasma ion acceleration and laboratory astrophysics and so when the opportunity arose to apply for a permanent position at the Centre I was very excited. Over my career I’ve had the opportunity to work with a number of the researchers from Queen’s and not only are they excellent researchers but they’re great fun. Although there’s been a lot of virtual interaction with the academics and support staff, who have been fantastic at helping the new kid learn how everything work, I’m really looking forward to getting to know them better in person as the restrictions lift.
What do I find more rewarding?
This is a tough question as the work I get to do is so varied! Teaching undergraduates has given me a chance to meet a lot of fantastic students, working closely with them in tutorials to get to know them on an individual level, and has also allowed me to deepen my understanding of physics topics outside my research area. I’m also very involved in the outreach efforts of the school and have really enjoyed setting up new opportunities for younger students to learn more about physics and showcase their creativity for example through our new STEM photography competition. But one of the most rewarding aspects has been taking charge of my research. I’m really excited about the experiments that I’m currently running in collaboration with other researchers from the Centre, which fuse my research interests.
Path to this role:
I completed an MSci and PhD in Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research at Queen’s and decided to pursue an academic career. Since then, I have worked as a research fellow at Queen’s and at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) at the University of Adelaide, before commencing my current post as a lecturer in Data Analytics at Queen’s. Working as a post-doc has given me the opportunity to work with many different collaborators in Europe and Australia on a diverse range of topics in data analytics, statistics and applied mathematics. I am really excited to continue working with this research network at Queen’s.
What attracted you to this role
The focus of my research is in developing new data analytics tools for modelling and improving healthcare systems. I have spent most of my academic career travelling and working with hospitals in Australia. In Belfast, I think there are lots of exciting opportunities to work with local hospitals and industry partners. It is clear that there is a significant issue in Northern Ireland about hospital waiting lists, and Accident and Emergency Departments which frequently operate at over 100% of their capacity. I hope to be able to apply and develop my experience in Data Analytics to help address those kinds of issues, and I am also really excited to collaborate with the highly-regarded researchers on the Queen’s team.
What do I find most rewarding?
There are two exceptionally rewarding parts of my job. The first is applying Data Analytics research to make a difference in real-word problems. I get the opportunity to work with keyworkers on the frontline of the healthcare system, developing mathematical models which help with reducing emergency department waiting times, improving patient flow in hospitals, and understanding diseases. It is extremely rewarding to see new theoretical concepts developed through mathematical modelling applied to create a real, positive impact in the health service.
The second is teaching. Since starting at Queen’s in January, I have already had the opportunity to work with students on the MSc Data Analytics Course, a new programme for the university which I really enjoyed being part of. It is extremely rewarding to watch the students develop their skills in Data Analytics and find exciting jobs. I also always learn so much from each new class of students. Teaching online during the pandemic has been very challenging as we can’t get to know each other as well, and I am really looking forward to teaching person again as soon as we can.
Photo below of the ACEMS Team at the INFORMS Applied Probability Conference in Brisbane.
Path to this role:
After completing my PhD in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry at Oxford, I moved to EPFL Lausanne for a postdoc in the Materials Science Department, after which I started my role here in the School of Maths and Physics – so in terms of academic disciplines I seem to have taken a strange path, but at heart my field is chemical physics. I’ve been working with atomistic simulations since the start of my research career, but since beginning in Lausanne have incorporated machine-learning into my work.
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