Anna O'Neil, BSc Physics 1998, PhD 2002
I
have always enjoyed playing with gadgets and understanding how they
work. One of the great things about being a Physicist is being able
to do this and get paid for it! The Prinicpal of my Sixth form college
and a family friend are to thank for nurturing my curiosity from
an early age and channeling it towards the sciences.
First Degree
I studied at St Andrews University in the School of Physics &
Astronomy. There all students were encouraged to take part in the
life of the department — no matter what stage they were at.
You had the opportunity to take part in outreach programmes for
schools, attend the School's Colloquia, and generally expose yourself
to as much Physics as you could take.
Postgraduate Study
As someone who loves the laboratory, being a PhD student was the
best job in the world. I had two great supervisors who gave me all
the support I could possibly need. They went to huge efforts to
produce a working environment that was conducive to research, and
were happy to support me in everything I did. I was very fortunate
to be working on applications and fundamental research involving
optical
tweezers. These were invented by Arthur Ashkin and co-workers
in 1986 at Bell Labs in the US. Since then,the subject has developed
very quickly, and there are now many exciting applications of optical
tweezers in all areas of science and medicine. The fast pace of
research in the area meant that by the end of my three years I had
written six papers, submitted my thesis and had also attended several
conferences. I also took part in school outreach programmes and
attended many IoP events. One of the highlights of my graduate studies
was being sponsored by the IoP to attend the 50th Meeting of Nobel
Laureates in Lindau, Germany, see http://nobelprize.org/physics/.
Industrial Experience
Since finishing my PhD, I've experienced working life in both large
and small scientific companies— I started my industrial career
at Marconi working in their modulator design team, and then worked
in a SME consisting of just fifteen people that specialises in developing
micro-optical films. I immensely enjoy working in a multidisciplinary
team and the challenge of working on many different practical problems.
Both jobs kept me doing research and I still spent most of my time
in the lab!
During the five years at the SME I worked on many different projects
within an inter-disciplinary team of physicists, engineers, chemists
and material scientists. The experience I gained during this time
has stood me in good stead in my current role as Technology Officer
at AILU, the Association for Laser Users. At AILU I advise businesses
on the use of lasers.
Posted BDS 1.7.05
updated
30.3.07