MPhys Physics with Year Abroad graduate Juliette looks back at the year she spent undertaking a research project in Vancouver, and the impact this experience had on her academic journey.
When I was awarded a Physics with Year Abroad placement at TRIUMF in Vancouver back in January 2020, nobody had any idea what havoc would be wreaked on every aspect of our lives by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The possibility of going abroad for a research year had been a large part of the appeal of my physics degree at Edinburgh. Amid the disruption of multiple lockdowns, and with everyone doing remote and hybrid classes as best they could, I was very disappointed not to be heading to Canada to undertake research in a national lab for my fourth (Senior Honours) year, as had been my dream for so long. The Senior Honours year, however was not wasted in the slightest; it was then that I realised my passion for detector physics, initially through coursework. I was able to follow up on this through my Senior Honours Project, and a subsequent summer project in the Particle Physics Experiment group in the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Thanks to some very hard work by Prof. Annette Ferguson and Dr. Ross Galloway, my degree programme was modified such that I was able to head to Vancouver to undertake the research project in my final year. After much administrative strife, I finally moved to Canada at the end of October 2021, to work on more detector physics for my MPhys year! My project was centred on studying very sensitive light detectors known as silicon photomultipliers (SiPM), for use in rare-event physics searches including dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay.
Canada came with its challenges; I had never lived away from home until then, the 8-hour time difference with the UK made keeping in touch with loved ones difficult, and getting straight into work full-time as a researcher was very different to being a university student! Nonetheless, I fell in love with the city, and Vancouver felt like home very quickly. There were six Edinburgh students in total at TRIUMF that year, who became my closest friends, excellent lunch companions, and a vital support network.
At TRIUMF, it was impressive to work on cutting-edge technologies and have the feeling that what you were doing hadn’t really been done before. I had the opportunity to work with people from all over the world, and listen to seminars by experts doing all sorts of interesting physics. Outside work, I got the chance to explore the city, swim in the ocean, lakes, see mountains, and even ski for the first time. I took trips further afield, visiting Victoria, Whistler, and New York City. In June, I got to speak at my first conference, the Canadian Association of Physicists Congress, hosted at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. As part of the trip, I also visited Toronto, which was something I had always wanted to do.
Despite the numerous difficulties in being able to go abroad, it was absolutely the most rewarding year in my degree, and I would strongly encourage interested students to take part in a research year. TRIUMF gave me vital research experience, which helped me decide to stay in research: last October, I started a PhD at UCL in high energy physics, where I work on detectors for the ATLAS experiment at CERN.
It was thrilling to discover a new part of the world, and I also met some wonderful people in Vancouver, with whom I remain in touch. I hope to return to visit as soon as possible!
Learn more about the MPhys Physics with a Year Abroad degree.
