Creative Sparks
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Courtney Williams
In Summer 2008 I undertook a Nuffield bursary placement at the University of Sheffield, in the department of physics working on the Acoustic Cosmic Ray Neutrino Experiment (ACoRNE), an experiment that aimed to detect elusive particles called neutrinos by “listening” for sound pulses they are postulated to give off when they enter water with sufficiently high energies. I exhibited work completed during this placement at the Big Bang Fair in March 2009 and was awarded the chance to attend the EU Contest for Young Scientists in Paris this September. Here I was awarded the EIROforum CERN prize – I will visit the particle physics laboratory next summer.
In addition to this I spent a week doing work at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory relating to the T2K experiment this summer and used some of my Creative Spark money to fund a second placement at the University of Sheffield, where I worked on other neutrino experiments. I have also written several articles about my experiences for publications including “E&T Education” and “Interactions”. I also attended the Talent Matters event in July, and spoke at this year’s Lincolnshire and Rutland Nuffield Celebration Evening in November.
I am currently studying at Imperial College London and am on the Physics with Study in Europe course – I will spend the third year of my degree doing a research project at a German university. I am one of this year’s Imperial student bloggers and also blogged about my time at the EUCYS on the Young Scientists Journal website.
With my Ignition Creative Sparks award I hope to create a resource combining web design and writing to encourage more people to continue with physics.
