Profile

I live in Newbury, Berkshire with my partner.  I am season ticket holder at a premier league club,💙🦁 used to be involved with a now non league club supporters trust, before my workload expanded and distance made it too hard. I am a vegetarian since 18 but have never been bold enough to go vegan (because of cheese🧀). I enjoy art galleries and used to paint .  I tend towards a literal interpretation of words, which can be frustrating to those talking to me.

I cycle commute once a week in the summer which is great except someone put the Ridgeway 🚵‍♂️between my house and work, and do two rides most weekends.

I enjoy going to the Edinburgh Fringe festival with friends, have been to several football tournaments abroad (Euros/World Cups)

My pronouns are he/him.

I work at Diamond Light Source,  the UK’s synchrotron source as  a scientist running one of the experimental station (beamlines) there.  The synchrotron is a large ring (actually a series of straights joined by 24 bends – so like a 24 straight athletics track as opposed to the normal 2 straight ones). Electrons go around this ring at almost the speed of light and produce X-rays, which I use and help others use for experiments. The technique I use is called X-ray absorption spectroscopy , this involves the X-ray that hit a sample having enough power to kick out one of the electrons in the atom of interest. As we scan the wavelength (colour) of the X-ray , the amount the sample absorbs varies depending on the local atomic environment of the element being studied and its oxidation state. Thus by modelling the data we obtain we learn the chemistry of one particular element in our sample at  time.

When I started at Diamond I directed the build and then commissioned and ran an experimental station that used very highly polished mirrors made of single crystal silicon with a thin coating of rhodium to focus the beam down to around 2 x 2 millionths of a metre (ca 1/40th the width of a human hair). I collaborated with researchers from many fields to investigate scientific problems that had samples that were different on that sort of length scale. Often we have to cool the samples to liquid nitrogen or even liquid helium temperatures to preserve them in the X-ray beam (we do this in cold chambers known as cryostats). As examples:

Cryostat on microfocus beamline

I worked with a hip surgeon to look at some of the issues caused by hip replacements (implants) made from an alloy made from cobalt and chromium in the main. We examined tissue from around these implants, that had failed and tried to understand what processes had gone on in the body to cause them to fail. In the main we learnt along with others that it was the cobalt that caused issues in human cells often by substituting for iron. There were worries the chromium might cause cancer but we found no real evidence that that happened.

I worked with curators and scientist from the Mary rose in Portsmouth to understand some of the problems that might cause the ship and its artefacts to decay. In the wood sulfur and iron can come together in a reaction that generates acid which can attack the timber. We looked at ways to both remove the iron so to prevent the reaction happening and both stabilise the sulfur and provide neutralisation agents to prevent acid forming or mop it up it did. In association with scientists from Kent we looked at the results of various treatments to optimise them and were able to chart the changes in the wood over a long period making measurements on an annual basis.

Catalysis experiment on microfocus beamline

I worked with some scientists from University College London and and an industrial collaborator  looking at how a catalyst made largely of Cobalt oxide on a support worked in three dimensions. By spinning the catalysts  and mapping across sample with the small X-ray beam , we could piece together the data to understand the chemistry of the system in a 150 micron particle on the inside as well as the out. We were studying a process that is used to turn CO and H2 into useful organic chains that are then used to make some to the basic chemicals used every day including diesel and food grade wax. If the efficiency of such a catalyst can be improved a tiny amount it can save large amounts of the energy used in the process.

About 3 years ago i had the chance to move to run a different beamline that has a brighter beam than my older on but a larger beam so looks at bulk samples. In particular it can look at really dilute samples down to studying a element which is present only in one part in a million and also getting a more detailed picture of the electronic state of a particular element, which can be useful.

Loading a sample into a cryostat

Most of my current research is done in collaboration with  the University of Manchester, trying to understand how various radionuclides interact with components from the natural environment. This has two main aims to predict and deal with any releases of such elements into the environment and to help understand what will happen to a geological disposal facility in the very long term. It is agreed by most scientists in the field that the best way to treat our nuclear waste legacy is to bury it in sealed containers deep underground. However we need to understand what might happen to the waste over the course of hundreds of thousands of years if we did this, in order to be able to do it safely. I am currently responsible for building an active materials laboratory on the Diamond site to make it safe to handle so of the materials from our nuclear legacy to understand them better, in terms of safe storage and building safer nuclear power stations.

I live about 14 miles from Diamond and in normal times commute there by car. There is no sensible public transport route for me to use. It would involve two train journeys and a bus or 6 mile bike ride each way :-(. I do however commute about once a week in summer time by bike which takes a bit over an hour each way. In a car it is around 20 minutes.

Cycle commuting view from google maps

I tend to get get in (when not using the bike) just after 07:00 having got up a little after 06:00. I go to my office, make a coffee (i have an Aldi Nespresso-type machine on my desk) and turn on my computer.  I read my email, then go down to the experimental station ( beamline) to check if the visiting scientists(who work 24 hours a day collecting data) have had any minor problems overnight. We have a callout system to support them in the evening , but it stops at midnight so after that they are on their own. I support the beamline with two other scientists so have to do the main support about 1/3 of the time.

Experiments on the beamline last between 3 and 5 days normally. The new experiment always starts at 09:00 so if it is a changeover day and I am going to do the support . I will be on the beamline again from about 08:45  to make sure the scientists whose experiment is ending are clearing out and be ready to welcome the new arrivals.

Then i will begin the process of setting up the beamline for the new experiment. Initially this involves adjusting the detectors and wavelength (energy) of the beam for the new experiment. It may also involve aligning the detector and adjusting them to detect the correct signal.  Once that is finished (2-3 hours normally), I begin to set up any equipment needed for the samples being measured. Often we use cold chambers know as cryostats to preserve samples longer in the high intensity X-ray beam. Once this equipment is set up, it is time to train the users. First I do safety training to ensure they operate the equipment safely. No one can be in the room where the X-ray are, when they are present, so there is  a system to search and lock this room which has to be followed each time.

View inside the beamline

The we put a sample on and adjust is position in the beam to start taking data.  On a good day, we get the data collection going and then go for lunch in the site canteen. On a bad day I work through lunch doing the set-up and then have lunch when the first sample is being measured.

The room where the beamline is controlled from

After lunch I will sit with the scientists as they continue to get going, offering them any help with the software that they need. This will depend on whether they have been to do an experiment with us before.  If they are a group I work closely with , I will assist the experiment planning, judging the data quality, planning for the overnight measurements. Otherwise I will be on my laptop doing administration task like risk assessments for future experiments, looking at the plans for a new building I am in charge of, answering email queries. On a good day I will leave to commute home about 17:00, however if it is an experiment I am involved in, or things are not going smoothly then it might be anytime up to about 19:00. I try to avoid leaving after that unless there is an urgent problem that needs sorting.

When I get home, as long as it is not too late, I will generally make supper for my partner, if I am late he might put something in the oven for us.   In the summer I might have time for a quick bike ride before this . During supper we normally watch something on netflix, or some sport and go to bed about 22:00.