Exploring New Realms of Physics

2022 marks the tenth anniversary of the remarkable discovery of a new elementary particle at CERN (the European Council for Nuclear Research) in July 2012. The ‘Higgs boson’, is thought to be vital to the formation of the universe after the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.

The discovery was a groundbreaking moment in scientific history and to celebrate its anniversary, we were delighted to interview Dr Lauren Yeomans (NH 04) who spent a year working at CERN, the home of the 27 kilometre-long (16.8 mile) Large Hadron Collider that found the Higgs boson particle.

Exploring New Realms of Physics...

From a very young age, the stars and universe fascinated Lauren and her inquisitive nature always left her wanting to know more. At Uppingham, she loved learning about the origins of the universe through two different perspectives – physics and philosophy. Mr Allen’s physics lessons were an inspiration: “One day we would be outside learning about the scale of the planets in our solar system, and the next we would be looking at motorbike engines. We never knew quite what to expect!”

Following Uppingham, Lauren went on to complete a BSc in Physics with Philosophy at the University of Manchester, followed by an MSc in Physics at UCL, a PGCE in Secondary Science at the University of Manchester and most recently a PhD in High Energy Physics at the University of Liverpool.

It was during her PhD that she was able to make a closer connection with the universe. She was honoured to be offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work at CERN in Switzerland, on the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This extraordinary opportunity allowed her to work alongside distinguished scientists, trying to build a picture of exactly what the universe is made of, and how those particles interact with one another.

The LHC is an astonishing experiment, it consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Inside the accelerator, two high-energy particle beams travel close to the speed of light before they are made to collide. They are guided around the accelerator ring by a strong magnetic field maintained by superconducting electromagnets.

Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes are used to direct the beams around the accelerator. Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to ‘squeeze’ the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions.

Lauren specifically worked on an experiment named ‘Large Hadron Collider beauty’ (LHCb), which is investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the ‘beauty quark’, or ‘b quark’.

She commented: “Working at CERN was amazing! There are so many world-leading experts in one place. My group published two papers about the world’s first prediction of a certain particle event – a real academic highlight. My whole PhD was based on this one event and there were so many hours of work that went into the research, analysing, writing up and editing, that when the paper was finally published there was a huge sense of accomplishment. As a collaboration we also made great progress in understanding a phenomenon called CP violation, which can help to explain the matter antimatter asymmetry in the universe. This is one of the ‘big mysteries’ that physicists are trying to solve, so it was amazing to be part of a group that helped close that gap in our understanding.”

“It is truly a unique place to work. The site itself is like a mini town, with its own restaurants and shops. Most of the time I was working on physics analysis, but I also volunteered as a tour guide which meant I got to spend quite a lot of time around the detectors themselves. Being on site also meant I could help to monitor the running of the experiment from the control room.”

“If there is something you are passionate about, you should pursue it. It doesn’t matter that you might be a female in a male-dominated field, or vice versa... Never let stereotypes get in the way...”

Reflecting on her time at CERN, Lauren has many fond memories, including when an open day was held in 2019: “I loved engaging with visitors and explaining what we were doing. During the day I gave several underground tours and to see the look on people’s faces when they saw our detector was amazing.”

After completing her PhD, Lauren has channelled her fascination with physics down a different route. “I decided that I wanted to try something where I could use my knowledge and skills to help people on a practical level.” Now a Postdoctoral Training Fellow at the Institute of Cancer Research, Lauren has moved into Medical Physics, another crucially important area of lifechanging research.

“This research will improve the delivery of radiotherapy, treating patients with micro-beams of X-rays. The cells in normal tissue react differently to this method than cells in cancerous tissue. This means that the same amount of radiation can be given to a tumour without damaging the surrounding ‘normal’ cells. Luckily, I am surrounded by a team of excellent biologists, so I can just focus on the physics!”

As a female physicist, Lauren encourages other young scientists to reach for the stars. “If there is something you are passionate about, you should pursue it. It doesn’t matter that you might be a female in a male-dominated field, or vice versa, you should focus on what YOU want to do and the impact you can have in your field. As a female physicist, I am in the minority, but I don’t let that put me off. More and more women are getting into STEM, giving younger generations great role models to look up to. Never let stereotypes get in the way of following your passion.”

Lauren Yeomans (NH 04)