Experience & Skills

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Academic Experience
Skills & Techniques
Teaching

Academic Experience

  • Successfully published in a variety of journals on a number of subjects, see my publications.
  • Worked with both experimentalists and theorists, as well as in large collaborations:
    • Dr A Ferreira (University of York)
    • Dr C. G. Péterfalvi (University of Konstanz)
    • Dr G. M. Klemencic (Cardiff University)
    • Dr J. M. Fellows (University of Bristol)
    • Dr C. M. Muirhead (University of Birmingham)
    • Dr R. A. Smith (University of Birmingham)
    • KITE
  • Attended conferences and presented my own research
    • CMD-29 (22nd – 26th August 2022): gave an oral presentation titled,
      “Twist-Angle Controlled Collinear Edelstein Effect in van der Waals Heterostructures”
    • Graphene 2022 (5th – 8th July 2022): gave an oral presentation titled,
      “Twist-Angle Controlled Collinear Edelstein Effect in van der Waals Heterostructures”
    • APS March Meeting 2022 (14th – 18th March 2022): gave an oral presentation titled,
      “Anomalous Weak Localisation Phase in Ultra-Clean van der Waals Heterostructures”
    • CMPNC 2022 (28th February – 2nd March 2022): gave an oral presentation titled,
      “Anomalous Weak Localisation Phase in Ultra-Clean van der Waals Heterostructures”
    • IoP TCM group meeting (13th June 2019): presented a poster titled,
      “Fluctuation Spectroscopy in Superconducting Granular Boron-doped Diamond Films”
    • WE Heraeus Seminar – Superconductivity in Low Dimensional and Interacting Systems (3rd – 6th June 2019): presented a poster titled,
      “Fluctuation Spectroscopy in Superconducting Granular Boron-doped Diamond Films”
    • IoP TCM group meeting (7th June 2018): presented a poster titled,
      “Exactness of Bohr-Sommerfeld Quantisation for Non-Central Potentials”
  • Attended Physics by the lake summer school (29th July – 10th August)
    • Topics covered
      1. Statistical mechanics
      2. Mesoscopics
      3. Electrons in solids
      4. Correlated quantum fliuds
      5. Strongly correlated systems
      6. Density functional theory (DFT)
      7. Topological phases of matter
      8. Soft condensed matter
      9. Quantum information processing
      10. Physics of biological evolution
  • Internship with the University of Birmingham’s gravitational wave group (2016)
    • Supervised by Professor Ilya Mandel
    • Worked collaboratively with current PhD students
    • Focused on analysing the final states of millions of binary star systems that were evolved from main sequence onwards
    • Contributed to a publication in nature communications, see my publications
  • Internship with the University of Birmingham’s theoretical physics group (2015)
    • Supervised by Dr Robert Smith
    • Learnt methods within supersymmetric quantum mechanics, specifically how to generate new potentials given an original, and how to find the new wavefunctions of the new potentials
    • Created a GUI in MATLAB that allowed the user to play with the parameters that defined the original potential, and so altered the shape of the new potentials


Skills & Techniques

Mathematical Methods

Here is a list of the methods I use most commonly in my research.

  • Quantum Field Theory (QFT)
  • Green’s function methods
  • Matsubara Green’s functions
  • Linear response theory
  • Diagrammatic & path integral QFT
  • Perturbation theory
  • Disorder distribution averaging
  • Ginzburg-Landau theory
  • Mean field theory
  • Complex analysis
  • Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics
  • Supersymmetric quantum mechanics
  • Bohr-Sommerfeld quantisation

Computer Language Proficiencies

  • MATLAB
  • C++
  • Python

Studies

Below is a short list of a few topics that I have studied during my time at university, and have a degree of familiarity with.

  • QFT in condensed matter physics and particle physics
  • Superconductivity
  • Bose-Eistein condensation
  • Superfluidity
  • Classical and quantum phase transitions
  • Physical chemistry
  • Group theory
  • Chaos in dynamical systems
  • Relativistic and non-relativistic quantum mechanics
  • Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics
  • General relativity
  • Special relativity in mechanical and radiative systems

Teaching

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate I assisted in the tutorials provided to 1st year undergraduate physicists. During my time as a PhD student at the University of Birmingham, I had a position as a Postgraduate Teaching Associate (PTA). As a PTA I taught 1st and 2nd year undergraduate physicists via examples/problems classes, and marked their weekly assessed problems.

2nd year undergraduate physics

  • Lagrangian & Hamiltonian mechanics examples classes
    Helped students understand problems that required the methods underlying the principles of Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics. This included,
    • The Euler-Lagrange equation
    • The importance of symmetry
    • Computing small oscillations
    • Calculus of variations
    • Canonical transformations
  • Lagrangian & Hamiltonian mechanics marking
  • Eigenphysics marking
    The Eigenphysics module focused on explaining the more mathematical aspects of physics to undergraduate physicists. Topics covered included,
    • Linear independence and orthogonality
    • Vector spaces
    • Special functions
    • Representations of special functions (e.g: Rodrigues formula)
    • Matrix representation of operators
    • Eigenvalue equations and Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue equations
  • Mathematics for Physicists 2 examples classes
    During these classes we helped students with problems set by the lecturer, in order to solidify their understanding of the material covered in lecture. The topics covered included:
    • Vector calculus
    • Distributions and generalised functions
    • Fourier series and Fourier transforms
    • Matrices and linear algebra
    • Partial differential equations
  • Mathematics for Physicists 2 collator
    As the collator for this module, I had to organise the marking of the assessed problems. I made certain that the submitted work was recorded appropriately and returned to the students on time. I ensured that the work load was spread fairly amongst the markers. To help average out the difference in marking style between each marker, I rotated script batches between markers. This meant all students would be marked by all markers.

1st year undergraduate physics

  • Mathematics for Physicists 1 examples classes
    Much like the other examples classes, I guided students through problems set by the lecturer to improve their understanding of the module’s content. Topics covered included:
    • Trigonometry
    • Elementary functions – exponentials, logarithms, and hyperbolics
    • Calculus – single variable integration and differentiation
    • Taylor series
    • Complex numbers
    • Vectors
    • Differential equations – 1st order and linear 2nd order
    • Multivariate calculus – integration and differentiation

Credit: Photo taken, edited, and supplied by Chris Oliver