My biggest role models are my friends in the community who have helped educate me and accept me.
What is your area of work?
The short answer is magnetism. The slightly longer answers is that currently I’m part of a collaboration to develop devices that combine magnetism with surface acoustic waves in lots of new and interesting ways. My part in this project is to create and characterise the devices using a variety of different techniques.
What inspired you to work in that area?
To be honest my whole career has been a series of happy accidents. I had an undergraduate course in Magnetism and Superconductivity that I took because the course I wanted didn’t fit in the schedule. It ended up being my favourite course so for my final year project I did a theory project looking at chirality in 1D spin chains. After finishing my degree at the University of Glasgow I decided to look for a PhD as I wasn’t sure I wanted to work in industry. I ended up at the University of Bristol’s Condensed Matter CDT which was joint with the University of Bath. I was adamant that I would do a theory-based PhD but I ended up falling in love with the more experimental side and started working on my project Uranium-based Spintronics. I decided I wanted to keep working in research for a while and looked for every post-doc I could find that I was vaguely qualified for and now I’m here at the University of Sheffield.
What are your experiences of working in the Department?
Ultimately, my experiences have been good. Everyone I have had a chance to meet and work with has been wonderful and supportive. The caveat is that I started during the first lockdown so spend the first few months working from home (a difficult task for someone whose project is heavily experimental) and despite being the lab more frequently I’ve still not seen much or spoken to many people outside my group. However, if my group are anything to go by I’m sure it’s going to be a great place to work.
Do you get involved in any activities outside the Department?
In terms of LGBTQIAP+ activities, not massively but I’m looking to change that once things are up and running. Trying to find things when you’ve just moved to a new city, and everything has been shut about 70% of the time you’ve lived there has been rather trying.
In terms of other activities, I spend a lot of my time hanging upside down. I do both aerial silks and pole dancing. I’ve been doing these for about 4 and 7 years respectively and I’m so happy to be able to find wonderful places for them and meet wonderful people here in Sheffield.
Do you draw inspiration from anyone in the LGBTQIA+ community?
There are a lot of amazing LGBTQIAP+ role models out there but if I’m completely honest my biggest role models are my friends in the community who have helped educate me and accept me. And in that same vein, the small content creators on social media who do amazing work to help educate and provide resources and safe spaces for people mean a lot to me. Over lockdown I started an Instagram for a specific topic and the LGBTQIAP+ community there have done so much to speak up and change the way things are perceived, and I look up to them so much for that.