University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
I spent about eight years during primary and secondary school training almost every day to be a classical dancer. I regularly entered competitions and performed in numerous shows. I was also hugely into acting when I was in school and started a sketch writing and performing society whilst studying for my undergraduate degree. I think I’d have gone into the performing arts if I didn’t do physics! One of my other favorite things to do when I was little was to lie on top of my dad’s narrowboat on a clear night and look at the stars. We’d spend hours trying to find constellations and planets. My favorite days out were to Jodrell Bank, the home of the Lovell Telescope – and I have loved physics since then, though my field of focus has shrunk a little.
I work on a neutrino experiment called SBND, or the Short-Baseline Near Detector, which in many ways will be a prototype experiment for DUNE as it uses the same liquid-argon detector technology as DUNE. In particular, I am studying the complex interactions between neutrinos and argon nuclei. Understanding these interactions will involve bridging the gap between particle and nuclear physics. The entire neutrino physics community is so enthusiastic about sharing ideas and building on each other’s work in such a positive way. We’re working with novel detectors, technologies, and analysis techniques, so there are loads of opportunities to be at the frontier of different areas of research, which is really exciting.