Bachelor of Science (Hons 1st Class), PhD in Physics
Data Analyst, Oranga Tamariki
I grew up in Dunedin, so Otago was a natural choice of University. I decided to study physics because I have always really enjoyed maths and problem solving, and physics has heaps of interesting problems to solve. I particularly liked the topics that went to the extremes; the tiny cold world of quantum physics, the time warp of relativity and the expanse of cosmology. These areas exist so far from our everyday experience that their behaviour is completely counter-intuitive, yet beautifully clear from both theory and experiment. Theory particularly interested me as it allows you to explore these worlds without any physical limits (for example the Bose-Einstein condensate was predicted theoretically in 1924, but it wasn’t until 1995 that we had the technology to observe it experimentally). Hence why I chose theoretical quantum physics for my postgraduate studies.
During my postgraduate studies I volunteered with the Otago Optics Chapter, a student group that organises professional, social and outreach activities. I particularly enjoyed the outreach activities, which took place both across New Zealand and in Malaysia. Organising and delivering these events was not only lots of fun, but also helped me to gain other skills which complemented the academic skills I was developing in my PhD. I got to collaborate with other departments, schools and museums, and enjoyed coming up with simple ways of explaining complex concepts.