Outreach

Science is for everyone

I was attracted to science because researchers engaged widely via outreach and mentoring. Giving back, I have written popular articles, demoed live experiments, delivered public talks, and hosted schools to share the excitement of science with a broad audience. I have also taught undergraduate classes from fluid dynamics to particle physics, and mentored students on wide-ranging research projects.

Pint of Science, Manchester
Pint of Science, Manchester / Photo: R. Dodd
Talking about dark matter at Catz Exchange
Catz Exchange, Oxford / Photo: S. Birgel
Conversing about particle physics at Stargazing Live
Stargazing Live, Oxford / Photo: S. Henry
School at CERN
Hosting 6th form students and teachers from my alma mater at CERN / Photo: D. Adriaens
Interview for UChicago News

"Scientists propose 'BREAD' experiment to find particles of mysterious dark matter". I was interviewed by the UChicago News team about my paper proposing a new axion dark matter experiment.

ATLAS Physics Briefing

"ATLAS observes pairs of tau particles in heavy-ion collisions". With the ATLAS Outreach team, I co-authored a news article for the wider audience on the observation of tau lepton pairs produced in heavy-ion collisions.

CERN Courier article

"The LHC as a photon collider". I co-authored a news article for non-experts about new experimental results on photon collisions. This was published online in August 2020 and in print for the September/October 2020 issue of this high-energy physics magazine.

ATLAS Physics Briefing

"Looking forward: ATLAS measures proton scattering when light turns into matter". In coordination with the ATLAS Outreach team, I co-authored a short online news article for non-experts about my research on the ATLAS Forward Proton detector.

Pint of Science Manchester Talk

I was invited to give a Pint of Science talk at Manchester on 20 May 2019 about dark matter searches at the Large Hadron Collider. I spoke to an audience on a sell-out evening at the Beer Nouveau brewery, providing an informal setting to discuss science away from the lecture hall to reach a wider audience.

Seeing the unseeable

In February 2016, I was selected to give an inspirational talk to a wide general audience across the arts and sciences about dark matter at the Large Hadron Collider. This was part of the annual Catz Exchange event that celebrates the diversity of student research undertaken at St Catherine's College, Oxford.

The Conversation article

I was the lead author of an outreach article published in The Conversation that covers research developments across disciplines. I worked with science journalists to highlight the release of our tau magnetic moment paper in ATLAS, and explain its significance and physics to wider readership.

MHCHS School Trip to CERN

In February 2018, I welcomed my alma mater Mill Hill County High School 6th Form physics students and teachers to CERN on their first school trip here since first LHC beams. Showing them round, I hoped to give a sense of what life is like at CERN, dispell myths about being a scientist and how they might follow a similar path in the sciences after school.

Particle physics live demos

I have run live demos of a cloud chamber, plasma ball, used lego and particle zoo toys to share great conversations with the wider public about particle physics at several community engagement events:

Oxfordshire Science Festival, Broad Street, 26 June 2016. This is an annual event run by Science Oxford. Our stall was on a high footfall stretch of Broad Street at the centre of Oxford city attracting children and adults alike.

Out of this World: Family Fun Day, Templars Square Shopping Centre, 17 April 2016. This was a new initiative by the Widening Participation efforts in Oxford to engage the local community with historically low participation and representation at university.

Oxford Stargazing Live 2016, Denys Wilkinson Building, 16 January 2016. This was part of the highly popular annual event run by Oxford Astrophysics that draws over 1000 members of the public to the department throughout the day.
Sidney Sussex MCR Research Conference

I was invited as a guest speaker to a multidisciplinary conference of graduate students at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Here, I presented my research and also gave career perspectives as a postdoctoral scientist to this broad audience.

Trinity College Science Society Symposium

A 20 minute overview talk of my research in the Cavendish ATLAS group "Dark matter and collossal colliders" to a general multidisciplinary audience. This is part of an annual all-day symposium organised by a college student-run science society in Cambridge.

Higgs Hunters with schools

A collaboration between the University of Oxford and Institute of Research in Schools allowed secondary school students to help search for exotic particles through the citizen science Zooniverse project. I discussed the scientific process, including the discovery of the Higgs boson, and particle physics behind their projects with the students in small groups.

Surprises of spin

In May 2016, I wrote the inaugural article for the PSI Blog, consisting of a popular level overview on the theoretical phyiscs of 'continuous-spin particles'.

Fiddling with physics

I was invited to give the closing presentation at the Flash Talk Physics event in December 2013 on the physics of the violin.