Profile

I live in Abingdon with my wife and two daughters. I’m trying to fend off the dad-bod by running at lunch time and doing boot-camp three times a week. I love gaming: both video- and board-games and go to the pub every Monday to play games with friends. I’ve been doing alright during the coronavirus lock-in, by balancing time between remote working, teaching my kids and doing housework. In the last couple of weeks I’ve laid a new laminate floor, built a new shelving unit and painted a bedroom!

I operate a negative hydrogen ion source. This takes hydrogen atoms from an ordinary gas bottle and adds an extra electron to them: so one proton orbited by two electrons. It’s pretty difficult to do this and the end result is quite fragile. It needs an intricate balance between all kinds of exciting science: vacuum, high voltage, strong magnetic fields, high temperatures, explosive gases, exotic metals… All of this equipment to operate a device that fits in the palm of the hand!

I also work on other bits of the accelerator. For example I’ve designed and had manufactured several big electromagnets which I’m very proud of. I also designed lots of parts in a big copper accelerator structure called a ‘radio frequency quadrupole’ (RFQ) which I’m very excited to see work when it turns on toward the end of the year!

After about half an hour replying to emails that come in overnight from international partners, I check the operation of the machine (the ISIS Pulsed Spallation Neutron Source in Oxfordshire) and my specific part of it (the ion source); giving a tweak to the settings if necessary. Then I’ll either carry on designing some new parts for the ion source, seeing how they should work in simulations, or testing them for real on the machine. Because it’s all new and theoretical, it’s very exciting to put it all together and test it. Problems or unexpected results often happen which need lots of boisterous brainstorming with colleagues to work out what’s going on. All of this whilst trying not to destroy any expensive equipment or hurt myself in any number of interesting ways!

I get up to all sorts, though. For example I might help install new kit or clean old kit in other parts of the accelerator when it is in a scheduled shut-down. I might give tours to audiences ranging from school kids to high-up politicians. I might be preparing a presentation or journal paper for an international conferance. I am actually involved with organising a virtual conference at the moment! Every day is different and I’ve got such a lot going on which is why I put ‘busy’ as one of the words to describe me!