Principal theme: Integration of research and education |
DrPaul Bartlett (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has set up a ‘NexusLab’, where undergraduates volunteer as researchers alongside academics,postgraduates, postdocs and industrial researchers to work on atomic magnetometers.
These are devices that detect magnetic fields with record sensitivity, by seeing how the energy levels of atoms are influenced. They can be used for a variety of purposes including measuring biological magnetic fields, land-mine clearance, and in geology and fundamental physics experiments.
" I tell the students that their degrees will get them jobinterviews, butit’s what they show they can dothat willget them the job.”Dr Paul Bartlett, UCL Physics and Astronomy.
Dr Bartlett has been given access to£30,000 for the Nexus Labfrom an industrial partner who is also enrolling one of its staff onto an associated PhD programme. “In the past, we might have onlyhad third or fourth years involved in research,” Dr Bartlett says, “but now it’s first andsecondyears too, which is fantastic.“ He andProfessor Ferruccio Renzonihave helped tocreate many projects that studentscan get involved in, and undergraduates have published papers as a result.
One third yearstudent working for the High Energy Physics group,John Smeaton, hasbeen volunteering on an experiment that looks for new particles that decay into Higgs Boson and other particles. “This has reaffirmed that I want to go into research,”John says. “I have worked closely with staff and everyone has been very approachable.”
Image: John Smeaton, High Energy Physics Group©UCL Physics & Astronomy
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