Meet the scientists!

We are now at a very exciting time in history, when we can finally answer some of the questions about the universe that have been puzzling the mankind for ages. From astronomical observations, we have already learned a lot about the universe and how it began. For example, we know that the universe is expanding and it started with a Big Bang some 13,7 billion years ago.

However, we cannot observe the Big Bang directly, so to learn more about it we need to piece together what happened from observations we have available and from the elementary laws of nature which we have discovered in particle physics experiments. This needs complicated calculations, and the further back in time we want to go, the harder it gets. I am lucky to have access to a big supercomputer called Cosmos, which I use for these calculations (and which also makes a cameo appearance in Lucy Hawking’s “George” books in case you have read them…)

In particular, our observations show that when it was very, very young, the expansion of the universe was accelerating rapidly, and this is why it is so large today. The main thing I try to do in my work is understanding what caused this rapid expansion, which we call “inflation”. Although my own work is purely theoretical, there are some really exciting experiments going on right now, which are going to help us with this. The most important ones are the LHC particle accelerator at CERN, which will tell us more about the laws of particle physics, and the Planck satellite, which is measuring radiation coming from the very early universe. I am therefore sure than in ten years time we’ll know much more about the universe.

My job title is “reader”, but it does not mean that I spend all of my time reading stuff. Instead, it is an academic university job which involves research and teaching.

I live in Reading and work in London, so I start my day by taking the train to Paddington. On the train I have time to read and write emails and prepare for the day.

When I get to work, I usually have a meeting with one of my PhD students first. After that, the days vary a lot. My research involves mainly sitting at my desk, doing calculations, thinking about the problem and reading research articles. However, I find it important to talk to other people to hear their views and to know what is going on in cosmology because it is fast-moving field. I talk to my colleagues and go to seminars given by visiting scientists. I also often give seminars about my research at other universities and talk at conferences. The main way to tell others about your research is by writing articles for scientific journals, so I do a lot of that, too.

Part of my job is teaching, so in the term time I often give lectures to students. We are a big department, so the classes can be large, and then preparing the lectures and making them interesting can be a lot of work. However, it is very rewarding to see how the students are learning.

Sometimes I have committee meetings and paperwork, which is not always fun, but which is very important for keeping the department operating smoothly so that we can focus on our research and teaching.

In general, one great thing about being an academic is the freedom and flexibility. I can decide myself what I can work on in my research, and I can do most of my work wherever I want  and at whatever time I want. However, that also means that you have to be quite organised and capable of planning your own work.