Profile
Patrick Mullan
My CV
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Education:
Undergrad: Queen’s University of Belfast.
PhD: Swansea University (ongoing) -
Qualifications:
12 GCSEs, 3 A-level (Physics, Maths, ICT)
MSci Theoretical Physics -
Current Job:
PhD Researcher
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About Me:
I am a scientist in training. My group makes anti-atoms; atoms made from an exotic thing called antimatter.
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I have been fascinated by nature from very early in my childhood. This and a brother who encouraged taking things apart to see how they work gave me a deep appreciation for physics.
Since the start of 2018 I have been living abroad on the Geneva border between Switzerland and France, working at CERN as a PhD student.
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My work varies a lot. I go between working on computers, to assembling our experiment’s hardware and any work between these.
This can be writing code and connecting cables to get different machines to talk to one another. Measuring electrical behaviours of devices. Reading scientific books to help me understand the problems I am facing. To studying trapped plasma in the experiment, a much much colder plasma compared to what the Sun is made from.
Below is an image of one of the plasma machines I use. A decorated mess of cables. We have three of these machines, each with their purpose. The main machine (not in this image) is where we produce and trap the anti-atoms for hours at a time. This allows us to make a lot of them (thousands). With them trapped we shoot a very carefully chosen “colour” of light at them and see if they break apart. Depending upon how many breaks apart for a given “colour” of light tells us details about the anti-atoms.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
I dreamed of being a Scientist
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