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Stewart Martin-Haugh

Curriculum Vitae

  • Education:

    Sherrardswood School, Welwyn, Knights Templar School, Baldock, University of York, University of Sussex

  • Qualifications:

    Master's degree in Physics (York), PhD in Experimental Particle Physics (Sussex)

  • Work History:

    Summer placements at DESY (big German lab) and CERN, then PhD

  • Current Job:

    Particle physicist

  • Employer:

    Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

  • My connections to STFC science and technology:

    STFC pay me! Also, they manage all UK involvement in CERN, so my job wouldn't need to exist otherwise. They have been kind enough to give me an office.

  • Favourite thing to do in my job: Make computer code run faster

  • About Me

    Particle physicist for CERN, based at a UK lab

  • Read more

    I live in Reading with my wife, a former particle physicist now working as a government climate change analyst.

    In my spare time I like hiking, playing the piano, and visiting unusual museums.

  • My Work

    I write code to make sure we record the right data from the Large Hadron Collider and throw away the wrong data. Otherwise we run out of storage space REALLY quickly.

  • What I'd do with the prize money

    Pay for schools in disadvantaged areas to visit my lab

  • Read more

    Every year my lab holds a Particle Physics Masterclass for 700 A-level students, where they learn about particle physics and get to visit our particle accelerators. It’s the biggest event of its kind in the world, and I really enjoy helping with the hands-on sessions. It’s a great way to talk face-to-face to students about science and see scientists as more human.

    For some schools, the cost of transport to the lab is too high: if I win I’d like to use the money to help schools from disadvantaged areas to visit.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Me, myself, I

      What's the best thing you've done in your career?

      Helped to find the Higgs boson in 2012, along with 3000+ colleagues

      What or who inspired you to follow your career?

      Reading the Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose convinced me to do physics A-Level instead of economics.

      What was your favourite subject at school?

      French and German: physics at school felt too much like memorising facts

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      From ages 4 to 18: fireman, fighter pilot, lawyer, physicist

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      Yes, a few times over the years. During my first week of sixth form I was handed a basketball: without thinking I bounced it on the floor, so hard that it hit the ceiling and broke a ceiling tile. I then had to explain to the head of year what I'd done...

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      I think it could be fun to be a lawyer, or maybe another kind of scientist

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      The National

      What's your favourite food?

      Pizza

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      A snowboarding trip when I lived in Geneva.

      If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

      I would wish for the usual things like world peace and a solution to climate change, but your typical genie would just kill all humans and say "job done". So I'd wish for a decent spaceship and then decide on the next two wishes during my travels.

      Tell us a joke.

      What did the inflatable headmaster tell the inflatable boy who brought a pin into the inflatable school? You've let me down. You've let the whole school down. But worst of all, you've let yourself down.

  • My profile link:
    https://ias.im/u.194422

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