Profile
Vicky Bayliss
My CV
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Education:
Southampton University from 2005-2010
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Qualifications:
Aerospace Engineering MEng
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Work History:
STFC
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Current Job:
Cryogenic Engineer
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I design superconducting electromagnets to steer the beam in particle accelerators. A superconducting material is one where, at low temperatures, the material shows no electrical resistance. This means that we can put high currents through thin wires, without them burning out like a fuse. This allows us to generate strong magnetic fields – of the order of 1000 times greater than a fridge magnet or strong enough to levitate a frog.
The projects I work on include designing new magnets and operating existing magnets. A magnet I am currently involved in designing is a superconducting undulator – to find out more about the role of undulator magnets, take a look at this website:
http://www.diamond.ac.uk/Public/For-School/Simulations/Undulator.html
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My Typical Day:
Mixture of talking to people and using software to design magnets or plan activities.
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My work is pretty varied from day-to-day and week-to-week.
Half my time is spent at my desk mostly doing calculations in Excel or working with some software to model the magnetic fields. I’m usually working with fairly complicated problems – so when I get started I don’t always know how I’m going to figure out an answer, I just sort of work my way towards it. This week I’ve been working on something that is new to me – so I got out a textbook, googled the words and concepts I didn’t understand, and have been gradually coming to an understanding of the problem. Hopefully at some point I will reach a point where I can work out how to calculate the number I want… it’s worked so far…
Other days are far more practical when we are operating magnets which are already in place. Those days are a bit more active – maybe using liquid nitrogen and a charcoal absorber to absorb any Nitrogen from a helium system, or setting up some vacuum pumps which have been repaired.
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Scientific fun in my village youth club!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Active, impatient, logical.
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Not really.
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Elbow
What's your favourite food?
Lasagne
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
1. Own a teleportation device – so I could see the world and still be home in time for tea. 2. Be able to play an instrument (without the hours of practise first) 3. Gaurenteed good health – so you don’t have to make sesnible decisions like eating less chocolate and more vegetable, but you’d never have even a cold.
Tell us a joke.
What did the fish say when it swam into a wall?
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