• Question: Do you work alone or in a group?

    Asked by sara97 to Philip, Monica, Arttu, Ceri, James_M on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by isobela, sarazaidi98, flower123, sajidaazeez, saraw1998, minah, monika.
    • Photo: Philip Dolan

      Philip Dolan answered on 13 Jun 2011:

      I work on my own project, but I’m part of a group of other students and scientists that work on similar projects. This way when I’m stuck I can get help from them straight away and vice a versa. Most research groups have a group leader. He or she is normally a super-smart person who not only helps everyone in the group, but has a good idea of what people should be researching to get really interesting results.

    • Photo: Ceri Brenner

      Ceri Brenner answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      At the moment, I’m working alone alot (booo) but that’s because I’m writing my thesis. The experiments that I’m involved in are all about working in a group, there are normally at least 10 people actively working on an experiment (as in, hands on, you work with them everyday). And then when it comes to analysing data and plotting graphs, you work at your own desk but we always come together as a group (supervisor, a couple of post docs, couple of other phd students and me) to discuss what we have found and where to go next. Science is very much about discussing ideas and learning from eachother and helping eachother out.

    • Photo: Arttu Rajantie

      Arttu Rajantie answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      I am part of the Theoretical Physics group, which consists of around 60 staff members, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. I work closely with my three PhD students, so in a sense we form our own little group. I also work with some physicists at other universities. These days most work in theoretical physics is done by small groups of 2-4 physicists, who may be in different places or even different continents but communicate by email or skype.

    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      There are between 2000-3000 people working on the same experiment as me, so I work with lots of people (not all of them at once). Day-to-day I can often work by myself, though.

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