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| Principal theme: Integration of research and education |
Dr Paul Bartlett (UCL Physics & Astronomy) has set up a ‘Nexus Lab’, where undergraduates volunteer as researchers alongside academics, postgraduates, postdocs and industrial researchers to work on atomic magnetometers.
These are devices that detect magnetic fields with record sensitivity, by seeing how the energy levels of atoms are influenced. They can be used for a variety of purposes including measuring biological magnetic fields, land-mine clearance, and in geology and fundamental physics experiments.
" I tell the students that their degrees will get them job interviews, but it’s what they show they can do that will get them the job.” Dr Paul Bartlett, UCL Physics and Astronomy.
Dr Bartlett has been given access to £30,000 for the Nexus Lab from an industrial partner who is also enrolling one of its staff onto an associated PhD programme. “In the past, we might have only had third or fourth years involved in research,” Dr Bartlett says, “but now it’s first and second years too, which is fantastic.“ He and Professor Ferruccio Renzoni have helped to create many projects that students can get involved in, and undergraduates have published papers as a result.
One third year student working for the High Energy Physics group, John Smeaton, has been volunteering on an experiment that looks for new particles that decay into Higgs Boson and other particles. “This has reaffirmed that I want to go into research,” John says. “I have worked closely with staff and everyone has been very approachable.”
Image: John Smeaton, High Energy Physics Group © UCL Physics & Astronomy
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