• Question: What inspired you to do your job?

    Asked by anon-231795 to Laura, Kasia, Gina, Mark, Liam, Felix on 12 Nov 2019. This question was also asked by anon-232568.
    • Photo: Laura Sinclair

      Laura Sinclair answered on 12 Nov 2019:

      For me, it was learning about PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans. Where matter and antimatter collide to create gamma rays – which sounds like science fiction! The electron (matter) makes up atoms, and it’s antimatter counterpart is called the positron. We inject the patient with a positron emitting radionuclide attached to a pharmaceutical, and the positron interacts with the electrons in the human body. When the electron and positron collide the form two gamma rays which can be detected. This tells us how certain processes in the body are working.

      I just found this really interesting and when I found out physicists work in this area I knew I had to apply.

    • Photo: Liam Gaffney

      Liam Gaffney answered on 13 Nov 2019:

      Lots of little things inspired me along the way. I had a really good science teacher at school who got me really interested physics and how things worked. When I was at university, I learned loads more about the fundamental forces of nature and how scientists still have all the answers of how they worked. At school we are always taught the laws of physics, but when I found out that they can be broken and have to be updated still to this day, I wanted to have a go myself.

      Seeing other scientists working in big international collaborations and also teaching me their experience, I started to apply to fo further studying after university. I was lucky enough to have a professor guiding me who pushed me to continue and let me join inspiring and interesting projects all over the world.

    • Photo: Mark Johnson

      Mark Johnson answered on 13 Nov 2019:

      I’ve always been interested in science, but it wasn’t until I started my A-levels that physics really jumped out and grabbed my attention. In year twelve, I had two amazing physics teachers who taught me about particle physics, antimatter, and the basic building blocks of the universe. This was so much more exciting than anything I had ever heard about before – most of it sounded like science fiction at the time!

      When I had the opportunity to do my own research on these topics at university, I absolutely leapt at the chance. I still can’t believe that I get to work with things like antimatter every day now!

    • Photo: Felix Warren

      Felix Warren answered on 14 Nov 2019:

      My granddad was a electrical engineer who invented a few things, he taught me a a lot of my core electrical knowledge like soldering and reading schematics.

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