Profile – Electromagnetic Zone

Education:

Collingwood College, Camberley 1994-2001. University of Cambridge, BA Mathematics 2001-2004, MMath 2004-2005, PhD (Physics) 2005-2008.
Qualifications:

I have a BA and an MMath in maths, and a PhD in Physics. At school I got A-Levels in Maths, Further Maths, Physics and German
Work History:

I’ve been a research scientist at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, a laboratory in Hamburg, Germany (2008-2010) and also at the Université de Genève in Geneva, Switzerland (2010-2011). While I was a student I worked at LegoLand in Windsor.
Current Job:

I currently work at the University of Nottingham. I try to understand why the universe is expanding in the way that it is.

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There is a mysterious substance that is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. We call this Dark Energy, but really we don’t know anything about it! I try to think of ways in which we could poke and prod dark energy in our laboratories to work out what it is.
My Typical Day:

I will normally be trying (and sometimes succeeding!) to solve the equations which describe how the universe behaves, to do this I spend a lot of time talking to other scientists from around the world.
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My work is very flexible, I can work when and where and how I like. Sometimes I’m working on my own, and sometimes I’m working very closely with lots of other scientists all around the world. I get to travel a lot – in the last year I’ve been to the USA, France, Italy, and many places in Switzerland and the UK where I’ve been living. Talking to other scientists and telling them about my work is really important. There’s no point discovering something new if you don’t tell the world about it!
What I'd do with the prize money:

I would use the money to support the Sixty Symbols youtube project that we have here at Nottingham (http://www.sixtysymbols.com/). They have great videos of scientists talking about their work.

Clare Burrage