Panelists

Alternative Careers

Izzie Clarke

I’m a science journalist and podcast producer. After completing a Physics Masters at the University of Nottingham, I embarked upon a varied media career that started at BBC 6 Music & Radio 2 before dedicating myself to science content. Whilst I was always pulled towards physics and astronomy stories as a producer for The Naked Scientists on BBC 5 Live, I now create science podcast series which range from the future of robotics to saving the planet. These include Call of the Wild for WWF, The Robot Podcast for ABB and Ocean Matters. Luckily, I still get my astronomy fix as the host and producer of The Supermassive Podcast for The Royal Astronomical Society. SLIDES

Amy Hearst

I am a Materials Engineer at Nordson XRAY in Southampton. We design and manufacture x-ray detectors for the medical, industrial and research applications. After graduating with an MPhys from the University of Southampton I worked as a Process Engineer in a semiconductor fabrication cleanroom at Leonardo MW. I enjoyed working on a on thermal imaging systems and a satellite project. At Nordson XRAY I worked as a Production Engineer and I have moved into a Materials Engineer position. I lead a project integrating scintillator technology which I am supporting with an MRes in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. SLIDES

Luisa Morales-Rueda

Physics has taken me all over the world. I started in Madrid, where I did my physics degree. One year of Astrophysics postgraduate studies in Berkeley, California, was followed by a PhD at the University of Sussex and a series of post-doctoral positions at the Astronomy Department at the University of Southampton. My next post-doctoral research position took me to the Netherlands. I could have continued moving around the world doing Astrophysics -my next options were Cape Town or Santiago de Chile- but at the age of 35, I made the decision to have a family instead. I returned to the UK, where became a part time lecturer teaching applied nuclear physics at Southampton University, a subject that I had not touched since my undergraduate years. Some colleagues from the university had started a company developing gamma and neutron detection instrumentation for nuclear security a few years back, and they needed physicists to test their detectors. I combined lecturing with detector testing for Symetrica. I have been working at Symetrica for twelve years now. I still test systems, but I do much more. My job ranges from algorithm development to improve the identification capability of our systems to the management of multi- million-pound projects for the installation of detector systems in borders and ports. SLIDES

CUWiP History and Motivation

Daniela Bortoletto

Daniela Bortoletto is an experimental particle physicist and a co-discoverer of the Higgs boson and the top quark. She is currently studying the properties of the Higgs boson and playing an important role in the development of instrumentation for particle detection.  She was the E. M. Purcell distinguished professor of Physics at Purdue University before joining the University of Oxford in 2013 where she is now the Head of Particle Physics. She has received numerous awards including an U.S. NSF Early Career Award and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association Advancement of Science and the UK Institute of Physics. She is the author of over 1000 physics papers and a sought-after lecturer about particle physics. She has been a member of many advisory panels to UK and US funding agencies, laboratories, and experiments including the U.S. Particle Physics Projects Prioritization Panel (P5), the U.K. STFC Detector Strategic Review Panel and the Fermilab program advisory committee. Daniela is passionate about gender issues in physics and increasing female participation in physics and other sciences. SLIDES

Improving Your CV

Heather Pasero

Heather Pasero is a Career Practitioner at University of Southampton with a strong interest in supporting underrepresented groups as they progress towards the graduate labour market and postgraduate study. She leads the University of Southampton Careers and Employability Widening Participation Working Group as well as the My Generation Career Coaching Programme aiming to empower and unlock potential for groups and individuals. Heather designs and delivers one-to-one frameworks and works with faculty teams to design and delivery employability modules and resources using innovative online technology to reach target groups. Heather’s is passionate about changing the environment of HEI’s, workplaces and employers rather than individuals looking towards a more progressive society.

Intersectionality and Black Women in Physics

Sophie Martin

Sophie Martin is a student on the i4Health CDT programme at University College London. She received an Integrated Master’s degree (MSci) in Physics from Imperial College London in 2020 and has since decided to apply her skills to tackle problems in healthcare. As part of her PhD, Sophie aims to investigate and develop interpretable applications of deep learning for dementia research. Outside of her studies, Sophie is also a huge music lover who enjoys listening to rare groove and neo-soul, especially on long distance runs.

Ayesha Ofori

Ayesha Ofori is a multi-award winning real estate investment specialist, former wealth manager, public speaker and a recognised leading businesswoman in the UK. A known expert in the property and financial investment sectors, Ayesha previously held roles in Morgan Stanley’s Real Estate Investing and Investment Banking teams, and at Goldman Sachs, where she was an Executive Director and Private Wealth Adviser to ultra-high net worth individuals, managing over $500m of client assets. Ayesha continues to work with high net worth individuals who seek to invest in residential property, but she is also on a mission to empower historically underrepresented groups, by supporting them to achieve financial and lifestyle independence through property investment. In 2019, she launched PropElle Network and the Black Property Network, property communities that focus on women and minority groups respectively, across the UK, democratising property investment and making it open, accessible and relevant to all. Ayesha holds an MSci in Physics from Imperial College London and an MBA from London Business School (with exchange at Columbia Business School). 

Yolanda Ohene

Dr Ohene is a postdoctoral researcher in the Neuroimaging group at the University of Manchester. Her work is in developing new MRI techniques for neurodegenerative diseases. In 2019, Ohene was awarded the IOP Jocelyn Bell-Burnell Award and prize for outstanding contribution to physics by an early-career female physicist. Alongside her lab work, Ohene is a science communicator and has spoken at many events including on the BBC, at Cheltenham Science festival and as part of the Maths Inspiration team. In 2017, Ohene co-founded the Minorities in STEM (@MinoritySTEM) network to support, connect and showcase those in STEM fields from ethnic minority backgrounds. Ohene is one of the founding members of The Blackett Lab Family – UK collective of Black physicists.  

Carmen Palacios-Berraquero

Dr. Carmen Palacios-Berraquero is the Chief Executive of Nu Quantum, Cambridge-based quantum photonics company spun out of the Cavendish Laboratory. CPB co-founded the company in early 2019, and has since raised circa 3 million pounds in financing from a portfolio of UK deep tech investors, in addition to several multi-million pound government grants. The company is currently 11-strong and looking to launch a first quantum security beta product in 2021. CPB is a quantum physicist by background, inventor of the single-photon source technology commercialised by Nu Quantum, product of her PhD research at the Cavendish Lab with Prof Mete Atature. Author of several research papers, a book, and winner of the Jocelyn Bell-Burnell Award and Medal 2018 from the institute of Physics. She carried out the CDT in Nanotechnology at Cambridge, and her Mcsi Physics at Imperial College London with a year at ESPCI Paris Tech. CPB co-led the Cavendish Womxn Society (Cavendish Inspiring Women) and was LGBTQ+ representative at St John’s College.

Amy Smith

Amy Smith is a PhD researcher at Imperial College London within the Department of Physics specialising in physics sense of belonging. After graduating from a physics degree at the University of Manchester she spent four years as a secondary physics and maths teacher within Birmingham, where she was awarded an IOP scholarship. In 2020, she completed an MA in Professional Education where her dissertation focused on how the backgrounds of female students and the physics stereotype affect uptake and belonging. Her work is now broader, looking at the intersectionality of underrepresented groups and how collectively we can make university physics a place of belonging for all.”

Unconscious Bias

June McCombie

Dr June McCombie is a Honorary Fellow at the University of Nottingham, where she has worked since 1989. Before joining the University June spent some 8 years as a postdoctoral researcher in France and North America. In addition to her research interests in the area of Astrophysical Chemistry and Molecular Spectroscopy, June’s professional activities encompass teaching and learning, public outreach, diversity and science communication. She has worked on a number of diversity projects in the STEM area for which she was awarded an MBE in 2013. She has been closely associated with the Institute of Physics (IOP) Diversity programme for a number of years and from 2007-2012 was Chair of the Juno Awards Panel, established by the IOP to identify best practice for women in University Physics Departments. She currently sits on IOP Council and is Chair of the STFC Advisory Panel for Public Engagement.

What Does a Medical Physicist Do?

In this session you will meet a few of the many female physicists working in the Department of Medical Physics at Southampton General Hospital (University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust) and hear about the wide variety of experience in the work of a Clinical Scientist. There will be information about routes into the profession and an opportunity to ask questions.

Rachel Barlow

Principal Clinical Scientist, Deputy Head of Radiotherapy Physics, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS)

I work as a Medical Physics Expert supporting the Radiotherapy Service at Southampton General Hospital. I  support the Operational and Strategic Leadership of the team of 48 staff including Clinical scientists, Dosimetrists and Engineers. I help drive forward technical development and commissioning projects as well as supporting with complex Clinical plan checking, Quality Assurance on equipment and training programmes. I am the Quality Manager for the department.  In my spare time, I enjoy playing violin with the CSO and family cycle-rides in the New Forest.

Angela Darekar

Lead for MRI Physics, Imaging Physics/Medical Physics, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS)

I am the Lead for MRI Physics at University Hospital Southampton and act as the MR Safety Expert for the hospital. I lead a team that provides scientific expertise to support a busy and complex clinical MRI service, as well as developing and enabling projects that use MRI to answer clinical research questions, both within the NHS and University of Southampton. I am the Chair of the NIHR (National Institute for Health Research) Imaging Research Delivery workstream and a member of the NIHR Imaging Group steering committee. I’m also involved nationally in MRI Physics workforce development and passionate about raising the profile of MRI Physics within the NHS and more widely.

Jennifer Lowe

Principal Clinical Scientist, Education & Training Lead, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS).

I currently work part-time in Radiotherapy Physics at Southampton General Hospital. I oversee the Total Body Irradiation and Intra-operative breast radiotherapy services in addition to planning and checking a variety of patient treatment plans. I am enjoying my (relatively) new Education & Training role covering the training needs of STP trainees and current staff members, and promoting Medical Physics and UHS to the wider world. Family life fills the rest of my waking hours and now includes a lockdown rescued greyhound.

Sofia Michopoulou

Principal Clinical Scientist, Imaging Physics, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS)

I work as a Medical Physics Expert supporting the Nuclear Medicine and Positron Emission Tomography services at Southampton General Hospital. I lead the development of nuclear medicine imaging services at UHS, design and deliver radionuclide therapies and provide physics expertise for clinical trials. I undertake BSc and MSc teaching and PhD supervision and am involved in imaging research. In 2021 I started a new part-time role as an NHS Digital Fellow, developing a project that uses artificial intelligence to improve dementia diagnosis. https://topol.hee.nhs.uk/digital-fellowships/fellows/sofia-michopoulou/

Catharyn “Cat” Rivett

Clinical Scientist, Radiation Protection Group, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS).

I currently work part-time in Radiation Protection at Southampton General Hospital. I have also worked for NHS Trusts in Plymouth and Portsmouth. I conduct quality assurance on x-ray equipment ranging from CT scanners to cardiac catheter laboratories to dental x-ray units. I help to ensure that patients, members of staff and members of the public are safe from all forms of radiation used at the hospital, so I also give advice and training, conduct audits and investigations etc. I enjoy the wide variety of work that I do, and when I’m not working I enjoy yoga and painting.

Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Jess Wade

Dr. Jessica Wade is an Imperial College Research Fellow investigating spin selective charge transport through chiral systems in the Department of Materials. Broadly speaking, her research considers new materials for optoelectronic devices, with a focus on chiral organic semiconductors. She currently works in SPIN-Lab at Imperial, which is led by Professor Sandrine Heutz. She previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Fuchter and Campbell groups at Imperial College London, where she optimised these chiral systems such that can absorb/emit circularly polarised (CP) light for CP OLEDs and OPDs. For her PhD Jess concentrated on organic photovoltaics and the development of advanced characterisation techniques to better understand molecular packing under the supervision of Dr Ji-Seon Kim. Outside of the lab, Jess is involved with several science communication and outreach initiatives. She is committed to improving diversity in science, both online and offline, and since the start of 2018 has written the Wikipedia biographies of women and people of colour scientists every single day.