Profile
James Smallcombe
Still waiting to get back in the lab
My CV
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Education:
John Mason School, Abingdon, Oxfordshire (GCSEs & A Levels); University of Birmingham (MSci); University of York (PhD)
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Qualifications:
A Levels – Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Product Design; Undergraduate Degree Physics MSci 2-1; Doctorate of Philosophy Nuclear Physics
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Work History:
2014-2015 – Postdoctoral research fellow – Japan Atomic Energy Agency, Japan; 2015-2018 – Postdoctoral research fellow – TRIUMF National Laboratory, Canada
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Current Job:
2018-Present – Postdoctoral research associate – University of Liverpool, UK
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About Me:
I’m a university researcher in Liverpool. Previously I lived abroad and worked at physics labs in Japan and Canada.
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I live in Liverpool with my wife Miki, who I met while working for the Japan Atomic Energy Agency ๐พ๐ฏ๐ตโข๏ธ (100 km north of Tokyo). I love Sci-Fi, particularly Star Wars & Trek ๐. In my free time Iโm a PC & board gamer ๐ฎ๐ฒ, except when Iโm feeling nerdy and then itโs model train time ๐.
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I study the nuclear physics. This means looking at the behaviour of nuclei, which are the complex core sitting at the middle of the atoms that make up all matter around and in us.
My experiments are done at laboratories where we use “accelerators” to make atoms go incredibly fast. Once they are going fast enough, they have enough energy that we can crash them together and look inside, like cracking a very tough egg to look at the yoke.
Because nuclei are so small we cant “look” directly at them, but we can measure the high energy particles (radiation) that come out and work out what the nuclei “look like”. We do this with clever pieces of equipment called detectors. The picture here is a set of detectors called TIGRESS, used for detecting gamma-ray radiation. I use TIGRESS at a lab in Vancouver, Canada where I visit a few weeks a year.
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My Typical Day:
Most of my days are spent at a the University in my office, working with students or working on data. Sometimes (my favourite times) I get to go into our development lab and build new machines for doing science. A few weeks a year I get to travel to big labs all over the world and run big experiments with my friends from different workplaces.
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Typical work days involve getting up late and going to the gym before a leisurely start to my day. I enjoy that my working hours are very flexible because I don’t do mornings (I work very late to balance it out). Most of my time is spent in an office where I can analyse data from experiments, write up results and meet with students.
The best bit of my time is when I have a development project for new equipment. This means I get to go into the lab and work on building and testing new devices. I like to do the soldering and wiring of electronics myself, but for the bigger manufacturing jobs (cutting shapes out of metal) we have a workshop where expert techniques do that part for me.
When my equipment is ready I take it to labs in different parts of the world (or sometimes I use other people’s equipment) where we do experiments using accelerators and beams of particles. These experiments are usually very intense, running 24/7 with a few scientists on shift at all hours making sure everything is working correctly and monitoring the results.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’d like to build a mock accelerator that students can play with at our outreach days.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
honest cynical affectionate
What did you want to be after you left school?
Always a scientist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
A few times, but nothing exciting
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Iron Maiden
What's your favourite food?
Sushi
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
A country house, a dog and to be 10 years younger.
Tell us a joke.
Did you hear about the semi-colon that broke the law? He was given two consecutive sentences.
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