The Public Engagement Early-Career Forum

Abbey-Rhian Powell

Abby-Rhian is a PhD student in the Nuclear and Hadron Physics group at the University of Glasgow. Her research involves measuring the polarisation of photons used to probe the behaviour of quarks in protons and neutrons. Abby-Rhian has developed a series of nuclear scattering workshops for school students from primary to collage ages that have been delivered locally in Glasgow as well as in a national programme of nuclear physics masterclasses. She was also awarded the inaugural Kick-Start Public Engagement Internship as part of the binding-blocks programme.

Aran Singanayagam

Aran Singanayagam is a clinical academic at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London. He completed his undergraduate medical training at University of Edinburgh and PhD. at Imperial College. Aran currently splits his time between clinical work and experimental laboratory-based research. His research focusses on how pulmonary host-defence is dysregulated in the context of inflammatory airway diseases.

(Credit: A Singanayagam)

Emily Lewis

Emily is a researcher at the STFC Scientific Computing Department where she investigates machine learning for emulating scientific simulations. She completed a Nuclear Engineering degree at the University of Birmingham. She is a STEM Ambassador and volunteers at STFC public engagement events in addition to hosting outreach activities and mentoring work experience students

(Credit: E Lewis)

Hannah Sargeant

Hannah is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at The Open University. Her research is focussed on accessing water on the Moon to generate supplies for future missions. After completing a PhD looking at techniques to produce water from the lunar regolith, Hannah is now working on the LUVMI-X rover concept. Utilising her experience as a Physics teacher, Hannah is actively engaged in public outreach delivering talks and producing teaching resources.

(Credit: H. Sargeant)

Jamie Williams

Jamie is a Wellcome Trust ISSF Research Fellow at the University of Leicester, working on applications of graphene in prosthetics. In parallel, he is the PI of the RadEOT project, which uses commercially-available components and a bespoke GUI to detect, process and utilise freely available radio data for use in the classroom. RadEOT is being deployed to three institutions across the UK during 2020 to improve educational attainment, boost skills and inspire people into STEM careers.

(Credit: J. Williams)

Philippos Papadakis

Philippos is a Nuclear Physicist in the STFC Nuclear Physics Group, investigating exotic atomic nuclei produced using particle accelerators. He constructed several experimental setups which are used in laboratories across Europe. After completing his PhD at the University of Liverpool, he moved to the northernmost Accelerator Laboratory in the world, in Jyväskylä Finland, to continue his research. There he organised yearly large-scale outreach activities and learned what a real winter feels like.

(Credit: P. Kivimäki)

Sarah Bugby

Sarah is a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at Loughborough University. Her research uses detectors that have been developed for X-ray astronomy and particle physics, and applies them to other areas such as nuclear medicine. She has been involved in a range of PE engagement activities since she was an undergraduate, and is particularly keen that current and future Physics students get the opportunity to have fun, share their work, and become better scientists through PE.

(Credit: S. Bugby)

Adam McMaster

Adam is a PhD student at the Open University studying variable stars using citizen science. Before starting his PhD, he worked as a programmer and web developer at the Zooniverse. He has experience running online citizen science projects and has enjoyed talking to the public in person at outreach events.

(Credit: Adam McMaster)

Catherine Regan

After completing her undergraduate in Geophysics at the University of East Anglia, Catherine moved to University College London where she is now a PhD student at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (MSSL) studying the magnetic environment of Mars. She is involved with missions including Mars Express and the Rosalind Franklin Rover. Since her undergraduate, Catherine has actively been involved with organising and attending numerous outreach and public engagement projects. These range from speaking at university open days, working at science festivals and visiting schools across the country to talk about a range of different topics.

(Credit: Catherine Regan)

Chloe Gowling

Chloe is a PhD student at the University of Sussex, studying gravitational waves from the early universe and data analysis techniques for the upcoming space-based gravitational wave detector, LISA. Her current public engagement activities involve creating content for the LISA social media accounts and developing a gravitational wave workshop for use at the University of Sussex. Outside of Physics she enjoys being in nature and getting stuck into sewing projects.

(Credit: Chloe Gowling)

Choong Ling Liew-Cain

Choong Ling is a PhD student at MSSL (UCL). She studies galaxies, machine learning and public engagement. She is working on finding ways to teach useful skills through Astronomy and inspire people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Choong Ling also works as a Scientist in Residence at Bevington Primary School.

(Credit: Choong Ling Liew-Cain)

David McDonagh

David is a researcher based at the STFC Scientific Computing Department working on software for analysing neutron diffraction patterns. His PhD focused on developing machine learning approaches to fragment-based energy models in crystal structure prediction. He is a cocreator of Argon, a particle sandbox app designed to explain molecular dynamics to all ages.

(Credit: David McDonagh)

James Lees

James is a PhD Student at the University of York working in Nanoscale Thermometry using advanced Scanning Thermal Microscopy (SThM) to create heat maps of tiny objects such as electronics. He has worked across the complete range of public engagement activities from videos to podcasts, books to magazines and putting on a wide range of live events of all sizes.

(Credit: James Lees)

Katherine Shirley

Katherine is a Postdoctoral Research Assistant at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on combining laboratory and remote sensing datasets to identify the composition of rocks on the Moon, asteroids, and comets using mid-infrared spectroscopy. She is involved in several planetary missions including the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and OSIRIS-REx, and the upcoming Lunar Trailblazer and Comet Interceptor. She has created several public engagement and outreach programmes to bring hands-on science lessons to primary school students both in the classroom and at large-scale events.

(Credit: Katherine Shirley)

Omar Mahfoze

Omar is a Computational Scientist working with the Computational Engineering and Environment group at Daresbury Laboratory. His work involves solving fluid mechanics problems and developing computer codes to efficiently and quickly solve complicated scientific and engineering problems using supercomputers. Omar was a PhD study at Imperial College London, and he was elected as the post-graduate representative of the Department of Aeronautics.

(Credit: Omar Mahfoze)

River Riley

River is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at University College London. His role has a particular focus on delivering impact on the student experience and this encompasses how students and the Department interact with outreach and public engagement. Behind all his outreach work is his dedication to equality, diversity and inclusion within science. Alongside this, his research interests are investigating new pedagogical approaches to instrumentation, particularly within the field of spectroscopy.

(Credit: River Riley)