Department Of Physics & Astronomy.
FUTURE PHYSICISTS
MASSIVE STARS & PRIZE WINNING SCIENCE
#INFINITELYCURIOUS
NEWSLETTER | SPRING 2018
CONT MASSIVE STARS international team of astronomers ENTS An has revealed an astonishing
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COVER STORY: Physics prize winner
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Nature’s Death Star Beams
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Test your Research Skills
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Alumni Focus: Exawatt
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Student trip to La Palma
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Physics Careers Fair
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Alumni Focus: ATLAS Experiment
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CERN Interview:
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overabundance of massive stars in a neighbouring galaxy.
The discovery, made in the gigantic star-forming region 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of how stars transformed the pristine universe into the one we live in today.
The results, published in the journal Science, were produced by a team including Professor Paul Crowther and Dr Joachim Bestenlehner from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Sheffield.
“Our analysis establishes that there are more monster stars throughout the entire stellar nursery than we had thought.” Professor Paul Crowther
PHD STUDENT AWARDED PRESTIGIOUS PHYSICS PRIZE A PhD student from the Department of Physics and Astronomy has been honoured with a prestigious award in recognition of his outstanding work in neutrino physics. Patrick Stowell, a final-year PhD student in the Particle Physics and Particle Astrophysics Group (PPPA), has been awarded the 2017 John G Rutherglen Memorial Prize in experimental particle physics for his research into how neutrinos interact with atomic nuclei. During his PhD studies at the University of Sheffield, Patrick has worked on the Tokai-to-Kamioka (T2K) experiment in Japan, which is currently trying to using neutrinos to study the fundamental properties of the universe.
“I feel honoured to be awarded the John G Rutherglen Memorial Prize and overcome by the support of the particle physics group at Sheffield over the past four years.” Patrick Stowell
As a result of his research, Patrick has given four talks at international conferences, delivered a lecture course at an international summer school, and has been awarded a scholarship to work with the MINERvA experiment at Fermilab in the US - a national physics lab considered to be the neutrino capital of the world. Professor Dan Tovey from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is also a previous winner of the award.
Read more: www.sheffield.ac.uk/physics/news
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NATURE’S DEATH STAR BEAMS
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Scientists from the University of Sheffield have moved a step closer to understanding nature’s own Star Wars Death Star beams – ultra powerful jets of energy that shoot out from the vicinity of black holes.
the mysterious cosmic phenomena – known as relativistic jets – by measuring how quickly they switch on and shine brightly once they are launched.
The study, which included Professor Vik Dhillon, Dr Stuart Littlefair, and Dr Liam Hardy from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been investigating
Plasma travels along these focused jets and gains tremendous speed, shooting across vast stretches of space. At some point, the plasma begins to shine brightly,
How these jets form is still a puzzle. One theory suggests that they develop within the ‘accretion disc’ – the matter sucked into the orbit of a growing black hole. Extreme gravity within the disc twists and stretches magnetic fields, squeezing hot, magnetised disc material called plasma until it erupts in the form of oppositely directed magnetic pillars along the black hole’s rotational axis.
“This discovery was made possible thanks to our high-speed camera ULTRACAM gathering 28 images per second” but how and where this occurs in the jet has been debated by scientists. In the new research published in Nature Astronomy, the international team of scientists show how they used precise multi-wavelength observations of a binary system called V404 Cygni – consisting of a star and a black hole closely orbiting each other, with the black hole feeding off matter from the star that falls through the disc – to throw light on this hotly debated phenomenon. Professor Vik Dhillon, said: “One of the best ways of observing a black hole is in
Professor Vik Dhillon a binary system, where the black hole is in orbit with a star and pulling gas from it. “Some of this gas doesn’t fall into the event horizon of the black hole, but is instead ejected in the form of a jet emanating from close to the black hole. “Our observations using ULTRACAM have demonstrated that the rapidly varying optical light we see comes from this jet, only about 40,000km above the black hole, allowing us to test theoretical models of how black hole jets are believed to form.”
Read more: www.sheffield.ac.uk/physics/news
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TEST YOUR RESEARCH SKILLS Each year we offer our third year undergraduates the chance to do an extended project module, which runs over the entire academic year.
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Each extended project has a central theme, and focuses on skills and interests that are relevant to a wide range of industries and academia. This year’s themes included: • • • • •
Group Industrial Project in Physics. Quantum Information Laboratory. Physical Computing. Education and Outreach. Microscopy and Spectroscopy Laboratory.
All of our students get to do research of their own, but this year 64 students have taken up the opportunity of an extended project to get further hands on research experience. The newest extended project theme is our Microscopy and Spectroscopy Laboratory, which gives students the opportunity to perform a number of experiments using research grade equipment in our newly developed undergraduate laboratory.
“The students learn industrially relevant experimental and team-working skills that will be useful in further research, using our specialised equipment.” Dr Chloe McDaid, Module Leader
This year the experimental techniques the students in this lab got to grips with were: • • • • •
Spectroscopic ellipsometry; Angular reflectance spectroscopy; Temperature-dependent optical and electronic spectroscopy; Optical microscopy; and Gamma-ray spectroscopy.
There are further plans to include atomic force microscopy, infrared thermal imaging, residual gas analysis, and Raman spectroscopy in future years. The students work together in small groups whilst learning the equipment, and develop their scientific communication skills as they report back the findings of their initial experiments. The students then focus on one of the techniques for their final research project. Students work either individually or in
pairs, supervised by a physics academic, and have the opportunity to work with other departments. Projects this year have included: ‘Optical spectroscopy of energy transfer in organic semiconductors’ and ‘Measuring polymerisation using ellipsometry’. Current students have found the module both interesting and exciting, and one of our students said: “It’s very good to see a module that is very relevant to industry after the degree as it motivates you to study things in greater detail.”
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EXAWATT:
SENIOR RESEARCH ANALYST Name: Alex Barrows Course: 2016 (PhD) 2010 (MPhys) Physics Year of graduation: 2016
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I currently work as a Senior Research Analyst for Exawatt, who are a consulting and market intelligence firm specialising in photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing and the associated supply chain. Exawatt maintains detailed historical data and forecast models for all aspects of PV production, and these models are supported by a detailed technical understanding of each manufacturing step.
ALUMNI FOCUS During my undergraduate studies at The University of Sheffield, I undertook an internship at BP. The experience of being in a work environment was definitely useful for me, and I learnt that whilst I wanted to work in the energy sector, I wasn’t keen to work in oil and gas. Whilst studying for my PhD and immediately afterwards, I worked parttime for a spin-off company from my research group (Ossila). Again, this helped me to understand the kind of environment in which I wanted to work – that I enjoyed being in an SME, and working as part of a small team. The experience I gained of liaising directly with customers on technical matters was highly beneficial too. After completing my PhD, I took some time off to travel and to pursue my main interest outside of work and study – climbing. Whilst away I applied for a Research Analyst position at Exawatt, advertised through the Sheffield RISE program and got the job, as the role was very well suited to my background and interests (a PhD on novel materials for solar cells). Working for a small company provides me with the opportunity to get involved in almost every area of the business in a highly varied role. The role involves a lot of hunting for information in company reports and financial filings, and then using this information in our models to both understand the current dynamics of the industry and to predict future trends.
“I really value being in a position where most days involve trying to find out something new.” Alex Barrows My Physics degree (MPhys) and PhD from The University of Sheffield provided me with a solid technical understanding of the physics involved in solar cell operation, as well as the manufacturing processes employed along the value chain, which is clearly important for my work. However, the most fundamental skill which I gained from my degree is the mind-set of how to approach an unfamiliar problem. How to quickly break a complex question down to think about what information you might need to come up with an answer, what assumptions you might need to make, and how any answer might have knock-on effects elsewhere. It’s brilliant to be able to take some of the analytical skills from my studies and put them to use in ways that are directly useful to the companies we work with. I also get to learn new things all the time too – whether it’s investigating a new technology, or developing my skills in how to interrogate a database, and I really value being in a position where most days involve trying to find out something new.
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STUDENT TRIP TO LA PALMA Last summer, a few of our third year astronomy students were lucky enough to jet off to La Palma in the Canary Islands to check out what life is like as an Astronomer on our annual trip.
Over a week they got to take their own observations on the 0.5m pt5m telescope, and learn more about the research taking place at the observatory.
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These are just a few of the fantastic pictures they took to document their travels. Thanks for sharing them with us guys!
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UK’S BIGGEST PHYSICS CAREERS FAIR Over 700 students from 14 different universities took part in the UK’s biggest physics careers fair, hosted by the University of Sheffield. This annual fair is organised by the White Rose Industrial Physics Academy (WRIPA) in collaboration with the Institute of Physics. The fair promotes technical roles and career pathways to regional undergraduate and postgraduate physics students. It saw a series of Q&A panels, interviews and presentations, giving students the opportunity to gain an insight into graduate level positions, industry placements, internships and possible 12 career pathways.
The 42 exhibitors at the event were from a diverse range of sectors, including teaching, medical, patent law, engineering, and aerospace, and each year the event gets bigger and better.
WRIPA is a collaboration between the universities of York, Sheffield, Hull, Nottingham and Leeds, aiming to facilitate collaboration between students and industry. The initiative was awarded £2 million in funding by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Dr Alastair Buckley, the WRIPA lead from the University of Sheffield, said: “This event really shows the benefits of universities working together to help our students. We wouldn’t have been able to get so many great companies and fantastic students together if we were working on our own.”
“There is a real demand for physics students by all sorts of organisations. It’s my job to help our students find those opportunities.” Dr Alastair Buckley Dept Employability Lead
He added: “WRIPA is all about getting physics graduates into the heart of UK industry - right where they are needed. Often our students simply don’t know where to start looking and they’ve no idea how valuable they are. But on the other hand many companies don’t really know what physics students can do. “WRIPA helps organisations and students find out about each other - through industrial projects, during the careers fair, through placements, and by making physics courses more outward facing.”
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ATLAS EXPERIMENT: CERN FELLOW Name: Josh McFayden Course: 2013 (PhD) 2009 (MPhys) Physics with Mathematics Year of graduation: 2013 14
I am currently working as a CERN Fellow on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Right now I am convener of the ATLAS Physics Modelling Group. The group is responsible for producing the most precise and accurate possible simulations of what we expect the LHC collisions to look like. This is essential for both making high precision measurements of known particles and their interactions, and looking for new ones.
ALUMNI FOCUS I had been interested in and aware of CERN since I was at school, but I first realised that a career in particle physics research was something to pursue during my third year undergraduate project in Sheffield. This project was titled “Searching for the Higgs Boson” (using simulated data only at that point). This sparked my interest in the LHC experiments and ATLAS in particular, and led me to embark on a Nuffield Summer Studentship.
“My PhD was my real training as a research physicist and was indispensable for my career.” Josh McFayden
My studentship involved working for several weeks in the department on a project looking at improving ATLAS calibration techniques. This gave me really important experience of the experiment and the software tools required for this kind of research. My interest then led me choose a fourth year project also looking at LHC simulated data to optimise searches for supersymmetric particles! In my role as a CERN Fellow, I really enjoy the day-to-day work of constantly having to problem-solve and each day learning something new. As a researcher on one of the LHC experiments, I also have the privilege of looking at brand new collision data that’s coming in all the time, this means in some cases that you’re the first person to ever observe a certain phenomenon - I find that one of the most exciting things about the job. Also, working with collaborators from all around the world is one of the things I really value about working at CERN and of scientific research generally.
My degree really helped me get where I am today, as my fourth year project supervisor encouraged me to apply for a PhD in Sheffield, and then became my PhD supervisor too. My PhD was my real training as a research physicist and was indispensable for my career. A large part of this came from the strong team of people around me in the physics department at Sheffield.
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PROFESSOR DAVIDE COSTANZO
ATLAS COMPUTING CO-OR
From Sheffield to CERN, we wanted to hear how Davide was settling into life on the ATLAS project. Tell us all about your new role Last October, I started as the Deputy Computing Coordinator for the ATLAS project, and I will take up the position of Computing Coordinator in October 2018. ATLAS is a fantastic collaboration of researchers who study proton interactions at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, pushing the frontier of human knowledge of the “infinite small”. Our flagship discovery was the Higgs boson in 2012, but we have pushed the understanding of particle physics in a lot of other areas.
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ATLAS is run democratically and each institute gets a vote. We have 187 institutes on every continent on Earth (except Antartica, that is!), and Sheffield
is one of them. Since 2005 the group institute in Sheffield (led by Professor Dan Tovey) has grown to 30 students, postdocs and academics. The ATLAS software and computing project has been my second nature for the past 16 years. It’s important to have good software and computing infrastructure to analyse the data and eventually find Supersymmetry. Recently my collaboration decided to appoint me as the coordinator of this project, which is a great honour. What do you enjoy researching? Supersymmetry is really my thing - it predicts that for every particle a super partner exists. Like looking at the universe in a distorting mirror. The nice feature of Supersymmetry is that it would
STAFF PROFILE
RDINATOR “Study physics and open the door to the world ...the universe” explain the existence of Dark Matter in the Universe that our Astronomy colleagues observe indirectly. The trouble with Supersymmetry? There is no experimental evidence that it is realised in Nature. And this is no small problem for an experimentalist like me! What does the future hold for you? This is an interesting question. The Large Hadron Collider is now in its maturity, and students are really the people who do all the work. I feel I would like a new challenge. I am busy for the next 2 years in this role, but then I face an interesting decision. I could explore more the data science aspects of particle physics or find another area where I can apply this knowledge. I am fascinated by cosmology, and I feel there are experiments that explore the nature of
Read the full interview: www.sheffield.ac.uk/physics/news
Professor Davide Costanzo the Universe and have similar questions to the LHC. But from a different angle. If time travel was possible, what words of advice would give to your student-self? I love physics. I think it provides an intellectual framework that opens the door to a lot of professions. In the end I stayed in academia, and I enjoy my life. My parents wanted me to study engineering, and I hear the same story from many of our students. Over the years I have met many people in the field of physics, and never found anyone who regretted it, or are unhappy with their careers. I think it was a great choice! I would say “study physics and open the door to the world”. Or for the lucky ones, like me, the door to the Universe!
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SOLAR CELL WINNING PIONEERS Ossila Limited, a pioneering company that is a spin out from the Electronic and Photonic Molecular Materials research group in Physics, has been awarded the Institute of Physics (IOP) Business Innovation Award in recognition of its solar cell prototyping platform. Ossila’s solar cell platform quickly allows researchers to start making laboratory-scale but fully-functional solar cells, from which new twists and big discoveries can be made by the worldwide community of researchers. The award-winning innovation allows researchers to achieve world-class results and speed up the overall pace of solar cell research in an affordable and efficient manner. The IOP Business Innovation Awards are presented annually to organisations that have succeeded in bringing to market new physics-based products or services that have had a transformative effect.
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Making the transition to renewable energy is one of the big challenges of our time, requiring the production of
(L-R) DR. JAMES KINGSLEY & PROF. DAVID LIDZEY
solar electricity that is storable and equivalent in price to electricity from non-renewable sources. Ossila’s solar cell platform is enabling development of technologies that will have a major impact on renewable energy generation by fast-tracking the fundamental science of creating higher-efficiency devices that could ultimately be mass produced. Managing Director of Ossila, Dr James Kingsley, said: “We’ve applied our know-how to create a highperformance solar cell prototyping platform that provides materials scientists with a competitive edge when creating and improving the next generation of devices that could have significant commercial value and a positive impact on the environment. “We are delighted by the recognition that this accolade provides and we will continue towards our goal of enabling faster and smarter materials science research across a broad range of technological areas.” www.ossila.com
ANNUAL PHYSICS FAIR
WED 10TH OCTOBER 2018 12PM - 3.30PM (FREE TRANSPORT) THE EXHIBITION CENTRE UNIVERSITY OF YORK
5TH PHYSICS INDUSTRY RECRUITMENT AND PLACEMENT FAIR 19
FOOTNOTE
SPRING TERM HAS REACHED THE UNIVERSITY AS THE BUZZ OF OUR PHYSICS STUDENTS FILLS THE CORRIDORS ONCE MORE. It is exciting to see their learning, projects and friendships develop, and a great time to be able to share a taster of our world with future students at our open days. We hope that all of you who have signed up for an open day enjoy visiting Sheffield and meeting with our friendly staff and current undergraduates. In this newsletter we have thrown a spotlight on the exciting careers of two of our recent alumni, who are applying the skills they learnt on their physics degrees into very different roles. To support the next generation of exceptional physicists, we highlight the UK’s biggest physics specific careers fair hosted here in Sheffield, and look at how we are growing the skills of our current students through extended research projects. We are also proud to celebrate the successes of our prize winning staff and students in this issue, and take a look at our world leading research into nature’s Death Star beams and massive stars. Finally, we hear what it’s like to work on the ATLAS project at CERN, and check out the fantastic photos of our astronomy students on their La Palma field trip. You can contact us at any time and keep up to date with all the latest news through the channels below. Professor Paul Crowther Head of Department
IMAGE CREDITS 02 – NASA, ESA, P Crowther
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(University of Sheffield) 03 – Patrick Stowell
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08 - Alex Barrows
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CONTACT US www.sheffield.ac.uk/physics physics.ucas@sheffield.ac.uk Editor: Christina Metcalfe
09 & 10 - Alexander Brown 14 - Josh McFayden 16 & 17 – ATLAS Experiment © 2015 CERN