Profile
Rachel Edwards
My CV
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Education:
I went to lots of schools, including Town End Infants, Ivanhoe high school, and Ashby Grammar School… all state schools. Then I was given a chance to study at Oxford, and took it. It was a gamble and took a while to get used to, but worked out okay.
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Qualifications:
GCSEs, A-levels, then MPhys (4 year physics degree) and a DPhil (PhD)
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Employer:
University of Warwick
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About Me:
I’m a physicist, and work in applied physics – looking at how to use sound waves to keep things safe.
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Read more
I’m a physicist! I studied at Oxford University, spent some time doing research at the Universities of Nijmegen in the Netherlands and Florida in the USA, and then came home to the University of Warwick to become a lecturer. I’ve played with the worlds largest magnets, and studied things from as small as a tiny speck of superconducting material, up to long lengths of railway track.
I live in Coventry with my husband, and our daughters (aged 4 and 2 months), plus many cuddly toy dogs. I love juggling and sewing, and watch a lot of cartoons. I have a different Spongebob t-shirt for (almost) every lecture I give. At the moment I’m on maternity leave rom my job.
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My pronouns are:
she/her
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My Work:
I invent new ways of using sound to make the world a safer place. We can send sound waves along a railway track, and if there are cracks the sound travels differently.
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My Typical Day:
When I’m not on maternity leave, I drop my daughters off at the nursery at about 9am, and then head over to the university. I spend some of my time teaching physics, and some of my time in the lab or talking with my students about what they’re working on. I write papers to tell other researchers about what we’re doing. I finish at about 5pm so I can get to nursery before it closes!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Buy chocolate?? Actually, I’d use it to make more experiments to take out to schools, so that children can have a go at non-destructive testing with ultrasound.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Overenthusiastic short physicist
What did you want to be after you left school?
It varied. I wanted to be an artist, then an astronaut, then when I ended up too short it was an architect, then I left the a-jobs and decided to try science instead. If I couldn't go to space, I could at least learn about it!
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not really, I was too busy living in a world of my own.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Miley Cyrus
What's your favourite food?
Either chocolate, or baked potatoes with cheese.
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I'm pretty happy right now - my wish for a long time was to have a child, and now I have 2!
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