Student profiles
Doctoral student profiles
Mubarak Ali
Having the reputation of being a city for students, Manchester promised what I was looking for – to be a student again! Its richness in the arts, culture, sports and most importantly photonics meant that I could pursue my career interests in defence technology and medicine whilst having ample entertainment at the same time. The course is well structured and the facilities for research and study compares with world’s best and I am already looking forward to completion of the new Institute of Photon Science building.
Jennifer Sanders
Having completed my undergraduate BSc in Physics here at The University of Manchester I knew the city and the University's high teaching caliber and learning facilities very well. The MSc in Photon Science presented me with an opportunity to study areas of Physics that had always excited me. Photon Science fascinates me and I find holography extremely interesting – even fun!
The MSc qualification will provide me with many career opportunities for applying Photon Science in the fields of science and technology, such as telecommunications, security holographics, or laser technology within medical science. The blend of challenging and stimulating laboratory experiments and the ability to choose from a wide range of interesting modules means that I can shape the course to suit me.
I love Manchester; the city and the University! The first rate support from lecturers and staff means they are always more than happy to help me and answer any questions I may have.
Paul Sweeny
I graduated with a 2i in Physics and Electronic Engineering in 1991. Since then I’ve been running my own IT business. I’ve had the opportunity to manage offices in Seattle USA and Japan. It was exciting hands-on work dealing with optic fibres, the Internet and other telecommunications technologies, but I wanted to get away from the standard 9-5 grind and expand my level of knowledge in the area. I looked into what was on offer at various universities across the country and kept coming back to Manchester for the type of study I was primarily interested in: Photonics and Holography. Photon Science is a huge area, most of which is at the cutting-edge of technology. We’ve been studying the way intense light fundamentally interacts with matter and then exploiting various phenomena to manipulate the outcome. This obviously involves a lot of work with lasers and we get plenty of opportunity to see the practical side of things in the lab sessions. There is a wide variety of modules to choose from, so if you want to concentrate on a particular aspect of Photon Science, there will most likely be something there to interest you. I’m really looking forward to the Holography module next semester, as this is an area that has interested me for years.
The MSc course has been challenging, but also very rewarding. Instead of learning by rote and memorising abstract facts, we have been encouraged to understand why things are the way they are. The tutors are always on hand for a friendly chat if you get stuck and are genuinely devoted to their subject area.
The University of Manchester has been great. In terms of facilities and overall campus layout, everything is within easy reach for me because I live in the city centre. As a ‘mature’ student, it’s been a fantastic opportunity to step-out of my previous ‘owner-manager’ role and to return to a learning environment where everybody is on the same level, regardless of their age or background.
Doctoral student profiles
Matthew Harrison
I have now been a student in Manchester for over 6 years. Having gained my MPhys from UMIST in 2004 I applied for a PhD in theoretical physics at the soon to be formed University of Manchester.
I chose Manchester partly because of the academic quality of the University but also because of the city itself and the University’s location within it. Being based in a large city means that, while there is plenty going on, it has good transport links that enable you to get away to see friends and family where ever they may be. My decision to undertake my postgraduate studies at Manchester was due to the friendly and supportive nature of the staff in the department that I had got to know in my undergraduate days. That, coupled with the societies I had been involved with, made it hard to leave Manchester.
My research is in studying the structure of rare gas solids at low temperature and/or high pressure. In order to perform the calculations involved I make extensive use of the department's computational facilities, including our own Beowulf cluster. As part of my studies I have been able to attend a conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at which I presented a poster detailing our work. As a direct result of this we have been asked to write a paper to be published in the conference proceedings. It was also at this conference that I was able to see Prof R Bishop of the department presented with the Feenberg Award for his work with Prof H Kummel on the coupled cluster method.
Paul Kirkham
As a physics graduate from UMIST, the obvious choice was the new expanded University of Manchester, but it was actually the chance to work on a PhD project that really interested me. A PhD is a very difficult degree to gain so you absolutely must be ‘passionate’ about the subject which you are going to spend the next 3 years of your life studying.
I had the chance to study new ways to generate solar energy from new materials as an undergraduate.So when the opportunity came to study this as a means of gaining a PhD I jumped at it. My interest has proved timely given the much increased publicity about climate change, carbon emissions and the need to find ways to generate electricity that doesn’t put even more greenhouse gases into our atmosphere.
I think the issue of energy generation and dwindling carbon-based energy supplies will be a challenge that the human race will have to overcome at some point in the future, so for that reason I sincerely hope to continue working towards new solar cell technologies, whether it be in academia or industry.
Peggy Li
I am a third year PhD student in Theoretical Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Manchester. I came from Hong Kong around seven years ago. I spent 4 years as an undergraduate at UMIST and completed an MPhys course. I enjoyed my undergraduate study and made a lot of friends. We helped one another in our studies to get through all the hurdles and without them, I don’t think I would have got this far. I fell in love with Manchester, UMIST and now the University of Manchester. Manchester now feels like my main home.
After completing the MPhys course I decided to go on and do a PhD at Manchester, because I was used to the University. I know the lecturers well and they know me well too. It is more advantageous in terms of choosing a supervisor and discussing the suitable area of research. I was also attracted by the merging of the two Universities.This has combined the strengths and facilities of the two Universities, which is a benefit to the students. The University of Manchester ranks high in the research field. My family and friends both in Hong Kong and abroad say that the University of Manchester is well-known internationally and a first class University.
Although PhD study is conducted independently of others, I have still made close friends in the office, whom I can greatly rely on. They have helped me tremendously with many little things that have made my life easier. My PhD research is in quantum magnetism and is about the microscopic study of quantum spin lattice systems and their phase transitions. My supervisor has been giving me excellent supervision and guidance. I spend a lot of time doing calculations and working on the computer, which I enjoy. We have excellent computer facilities and I use `Maddog', i@.e@., parallel processing to run my programmes and I can use up to 24 processors to run my programmes at one time, which speeds up the run time enormously. My research also gives me the enables me to collaborate with staff at the University of Magdeburg in Germany. This has given me the opportunity to visit Magdeburg and also for staff there to frequently visit us. The exchange of knowledge that takes place on these trips is extremely beneficial.
I am finalising my PhD by writing up a couple of research papers and my thesis. Upon completion, I hope to get a research position in academia, an industrial organisation or a teaching position.
Dick Long
I am a mature student and first graduated in 1971 in Applied Maths and Computer Science and then followed a career in the IT industry for the next 30 odd years. I’m in the School of Physics and Astronomy and in the second year of a PhD on Galactic Dynamics and Gravitational Microlensing, having already completed an MSc in Radio Astronomy in 2005.
So, how did I end up back in academic life? After commuting weekly from South Cheshire to London for 6 years to work on government contracts, I decided “no more IT, thank you”. I’ve had an interest in astronomy and related topics for many years (Dan Dare and the Eagle comic have much to answer for) and bought a book on cosmological physics to bring myself up-to-date. I didn’t understand too much of the book initially but it did trigger a few Open University courses to refresh long-unused maths and physics and eventually led to Jodrell Bank and the MSc and PhD.
I’ve been aware of Jodrell Bank Observatory and radio astronomy since the early 1960’s and, since moving to Cheshire, I have taken advantage of the Visitor Centre on a number of occasions. The opportunity to study at a world renowned facility with top class people was not to be missed – in my case gravitational lensing was the immediate attraction. In hindsight I wish I’d made the move many years earlier!
Well, what next? I’ll complete the PhD and seek to continue working on Galactic Dynamics and associated fields. I don’t plan to go back to industry but instead hope to work in a European academic institution.
Chris Tevlin
I am a third year postgraduate student in the Particle Physics group at Manchester.My main research interest is QCD phenomenology, especially that relevant to ATLAS, one of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
I did my undergraduate degree at the University of Oxford and, after completing an MPhys project in Particle Physics, decided that I wanted to study the subject further.
When deciding where to do my PhD, I considered the main universities with strong Particle Physics groups.Manchester has a large Particle Physics group, with a very friendly atmosphere. The group is actively involved in several major international collaborations in both Europe and the United States, for example the collider experiments ATLAS, BaBar and D0; and the neutrino experiments NEMO-III and SuperNemo. The group also has a growing accelerator physics section.
When I was thinking of applying, I found it difficult to choose between experimental and theoretical physics as I am interested in both.Whereas most universities have separate groups, at Manchester the groups have merged and theorists work in close association with experimentalists. Manchester also offers some studentships jointly supervised by a theorist and an experimentalist and this was one of the biggest attractions of Manchester for me.
When I have completed my PhD, I hope to obtain a research post in the same field, building on the work that I am doing currently as well as working in other related areas.