Eoin Ó Colgáin

What were the main “career decision” milestones in your life so far?

Despite studying science and mathematics in secondary school, a career in law was beckoning until on a Maths/Physics open day at Trinity I was enchanted by some dry mathematical wit, a calculation of the solar mass from simple principles and a tour around a magnetism lab.

Something clicked and despite having to climb over a few hurdles, PhD being one of many, I am still living a small adventure every day.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

Without doubt my PhD supervisor. I thank him for introducing me to the dark arts of intricate calculation, sharing his Latex template and the collaboration that led to my first paper.

Finding my own questions took more time, but his perspective is invaluable from time to time. But we all have to leave the nest at various stages in our lives, so I try not to bother him too much these days.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes! One can find paper and pen, blackboard and chalk in a host of wonderful locations worldwide. In the last year alone, I have been to Seoul, Mumbai, Barcelona, New York, Dublin and Oviedo, Spain where I now based. I am currently looking for a summer conference with a nice beach.

Describe a typical day

There is rarely a typical day. Outside of nitty-gritty calculations, seminars are attended and occasionally presented, discussions happen with coffee and cake often being good catalysts, conceptual difficulties get resolved and my Latex file expands. I also get out for a run when I get too burned out and algebra starts to disown me. Today editing this piece is less than typical.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

Writing papers, giving talks, hosting journal clubs where we dissect recent papers and generally trying to get as much exposure for my current employer as possible.

What are the main challenges?

Writing a paper boils down to finding a new question. As with Goldilocks, it can’t be too easy or  too difficult, it has to be just right, right in the sense that I can bring it to some conclusion in finite time. It is an easy task to think up questions that are very, very difficult, if not impossible, to answer.

 What’s cool?

Despite appearances and common stereotypes about physicists, I get to be creative. I can work on whatever I like provided I entertain the journal referee. I also get to collaborate with different people from a host of backgrounds.

What’s not so cool?

While I get to travel, the constant moving and the job insecurity can be a nightmare. Finding a permanent lecturing position is the Holy Grail of postdoctoral existence.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Under the String theory umbrella, there are many facets of study. Given that my expertise is a little different from my colleagues, it allows us to see the same issue from various different angles leading to a more rounded picture.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I took mathematics, physics and chemistry at secondary school and should’ve probably also taken applied maths but missed out on that one. At university I studied for a BA in theoretical physics at Trinity which allowed one to study mathematics and physics in both the maths and physics departments. I am now somewhere in between the worlds of the mathematician and the physicist.

What is your education to date?

I have a research masters in Lattice QCD from Trinity studying some exotic state of matter affectionately called glueballs. I then decided I didn’t like machines (or debugging) and opted for pen and paper and a PhD in supergravity at Imperial College London.

Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

In the not too distant future I would like to tackle teaching and the supervision of graduate students. Beyond that it would be exciting to do some science outreach and explain particle physics to the general public. A course in science writing may be a useful skill to have.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Publishing my first paper was a rewarding moment. Getting shortlisted for a faculty position last year at a reputable Korean university was also enjoyable as it indicates that I may be on the right track.

What is your dream job?

A lecturing position allowing time to continue research, supervise PhD students and pursue other activities.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

While not essential a good grounding in mathematics is very helpful.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Hard work, determination and self-motivation.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

One needs to develop a taste for research. Only after putting a research paper together does one appreciate the hours of effort that go into the final product. While the physics may come quickly, illustrating one’s result could take weeks or months either in the lab, writing and debugging software or crunching up pieces of paper and tossing them into the bin. These activities are all part of the process and an undergrad computational project, a research masters or a PhD should all be good opportunities for getting some experience.

A physics qualification is “a passport to a well-paid career in a wide variety of sectors throughout the world”, according to a major new survey of physics graduates in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The survey found that:

• Physicists have the potential to earn very good salaries (14% of the graduates earn more than €100,000 a year)
• While physics graduates from Irish universities and institutes of technology mainly work in Ireland, they have found employment all over the world (Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific region)
• Graduates with physics degrees are employed in a wide range of sectors, ranging from high-tech industries to the arts and the media
• Physics graduates have skill sets that are widely sought after by employers, such as problem solving, team working and creativity
• An increasing number of women are pursuing a career in physics: just under a third of the survey respondents were female
• Physics graduates often hold a further qualification in another discipline: a fifth of respondents said they also held a HDip Ed or PGCE teaching qualification while a similar proportion gained a postgraduate qualification in another discipline
• Graduates with a higher level physics qualification (Masters, PhD) are contributing to Ireland’s rapidly growing third-level research community in disciplines such as ICT, biotechnology and nanotechnology

The report, “Physics in Ireland: the brightest minds go further”, is published by the Institute of Physics in Ireland. It is based on a survey of 822 physics graduates from Irish colleges, and provides strong evidence that a degree in physics leads to well-paid employment in highly diverse fields.

Speaking at the launch of the report, the Minister for Research and Innovation, Seán Sherlock, said: “This report highlights the stimulating and well-paid careers that can be enjoyed by physics graduates.

“With Ireland’s international competitiveness, becoming increasingly dependent on the scientific and technological skills of its workforce, it is important that more young people are encouraged to take science courses.”

Download the full report on physics in Ireland (PDF, 4MB)

After graduating she worked with Nobel prize Winner William H. Bragg at University College London, and later at The Royal Institution, London. Her life’s work was in studying the structure of chemicals and X-Ray crystallography. She had a profound influence on the development of this technique, as well as other fields in chemistry and physics.

She confirmed experimentally the structure of benzene in 1929.

In 1956 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, despite the fact that she had spent some time in Holloway prison in 1943 after refusing to register for civil defence duties during World War II and refusing to pay the subsequent 2 pound fine.

She achieved a number of other remarkable things during her lifetime – in 1945 she was the first woman, along with microbiologist Marjory Stephenson, to be elected Fellow of The Royal Society (London).

She was also the first female professor of University College, London, and, in 1967, became the first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). She was one of the founders of the Young Scientists’ section of the BA, and made the following note to herself: “Never refuse an opportunity to speak at schools.”

In her honour, a rare meteoric diamond has been named Lonsdaleite.

Following on from Newton’s work on visible light in the 1660s, Tyndall suggested that the blue of the sky is due to the scattering of the sun’s light by molecules in the atmosphere. Known as the Tyndall effect, or nephelometry, this phenomenon is the basis of instruments such as the spectrometer.

Fire Optics

Tyndall was an inventor as well as researcher. He invented the fireman’s respirator and improved on the fog horn, but his most important invention was his “light pipe”, which he originally constructed using just a torch and a bucket of water. The modern version of this “light pipe” is the gastroscope, which is used in hospitals today to view the inside of a patient’s stomach.

Tyndall’s “light-pipe” eventually led to the development of fibre optics.

When not in the lab, he loved to study glacier forms in the Alps. He climbed Mont Blanc several times and eventually became the first person to climb Weisshorn in 1860. In the same year, he published a book on his adventures called “Glaciers of the Alps”.

In his lifetime, Tyndall also made important contributions to thermodynamics, magnetism, electricity, telecommunications and electronics. As an educationalist he influenced the direction of science teaching at university and school levels.

Read more

Read more on the NASA Earth Observatory website

While at Cambridge University during her Ph.D., Jocelyn began working on a radio astronomy project using a telescope she herself had helped to construct. She was responsible for monitoring the daily recordings from the telescope, which proved a tedious job until, in November 1967, she began to take notice of unusual signs on the recordings.

After playing with theories of reflections from the moon, or even extraterrestrial origins, Bell noticed that the unusual radio source remained fixed with respect to the stars and was therefore beyond the solar system. Over the next few months, she discovered 3 more pulsating radio sources.

The signals were coming from pulsars.

Burnell was awarded the prestigious Michelson Award with her former graduate advisor Anthony Hewish in 1973.

The following year when Sir Martin Ryle and Anthony Hewish were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics “for their pioneering work in astrophysics”, Jocelyn was not acknowledged or recognised for the discovery.

Many astronomers felt she should also have been awarded the Nobel prize. Today Jocelyn Bell Burnell is still working on the advancement of astronomy and is presently Professor of Physics and Department Chair at the Open University, England.

Learn more

Read more on the CEEMaST site

What these two scientists had achieved was not only the conversion of one element into another by artificial means but also they were able to verify Einstein’s famous equation E=mc².

This achievement was one of the greatest in physics and one of the scientists responsible was Irish-born Ernest Walton.

For his work, Walton received a scientific Nobel prize for Physics – along with John Cockcroft – in 1951. Walton remains the only Irish-born scientist to receive a scientific Nobel Prize.

Born in Dungarvan, Co.Waterford, in 1903, Walton entered Trinity College Dublin in 1922 on a scholarship to read maths and experimental science. After graduating with first class honours, he started work on his Masters, which he received in 1927. In the same year he received a research scholarship and went to Cambridge University to work in the Cavendish Laboratory.

He continued researching at Cambridge until 1934 and received his Ph.D. there. He returned to Trinity College and was appointed Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy in 1946 and elected Senior Fellow in 1960. He died in 1995.

Science Foundation Ireland has named the E.T.S. Walton Visitor Awards in honour of Walton. These awards have been developed to attract researchers to Ireland.

Read more at

Read about Walton on NobelPrix

Despite their arcane name, quaternions are actually quite simple. They are generalisations or extensions of the ordinary decimal numbers such as 17.3 or 3.1415 which we encounter every day.

Quaternions consist of four of these regular numbers bundled together in a particular way into a composite number, a kind of super-number, which gives them special properties. Hamilton took the name “quaternion” from the Bible, where it refers to a squad of four Roman soldiers.

Other contributions

While quaternions are the most widely known of Hamilton’s contributions to science, they are by no means his only contribution, nor are they his most important.

Hamilton also did extremely innovative work in the mathematical modelling of light propagation through crystals and predicted a new phenomenon, known as conic refraction, entirely on the basis of his theoretical model. This phenomenon caused a sensation in scientific circles when it was subsequently verified experimentally.

However, Hamilton’s greatest legacies are the important advances he made in the field of theoretical physics known as mechanics, which deals with the motion of objects under the influence of forces such as gravity.

Powerful

Although Newton’s Laws of Motion were known for 200 years, Hamilton developed a new approach to mechanics which, although equivalent to Newton’s Laws, is far more powerful. This approach is central to applications as diverse as navigating space probes through the solar system to designing drugs.

Hamilton’s work in mechanics took on even greater significance in the early part of the 20th century when it turned out to be critical to the development of quantum mechanics (QM). This is one of the twin pillars of our understanding of the physics of our universe (the other being Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity)

QM led directly to such technological breakthroughs as lasers and computer chips. QM also underpins emerging technologies such as nanotechnology.

Delving deeper

[This section provides a more detailed explanation of quaternions. It should be accessible to Leaving Certificate students or those with some familiarity with imaginary and complex numbers.]

The real or decimal numbers that we use on a daily basis, such as 3.1415, have their roots in India in the 6th century. However, they only entered mainstream use in Europe much later, in the 16th century. Complex numbers also emerged in the 16th century, as an extension to the real numbers.

The basic idea of complex numbers is to form a compound number consisting of an ordered pair of two real numbers such as (14, 3) or (13.5, 3.1). This is usually written as 13.5 + i 3.1 where i denotes the square root of -1.

Two of these complex numbers can be added in the obvious way to produce a third complex number:

(a + ib) + (c + id ) = (a + c) + i ( b + d ) .

However, the clever bit is the rule for multiplying them which involves cross-over between the first and second elements. The result of multiplying two complex numbers is determined by the rule

i2 = -1

and lead to

(a + ib )

Paudie Scanlon - studying for a PhD in Applied Physics

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

I’ve always been interested in figuring out how things work, so I took physics and engineering in the Leaving Cert, and tech graphics as I had thought that I wanted to do some kind of engineering.

This helped me a great deal when I eventually decided to do applied physics in college. As I progressed through college, I realised the best way to keep learning was to go on to do postgrad study.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

The first person to point me in the direction of physics was my secondary school teacher. A lot of the syllabus is very fundamental stuff and can be quite boring, but he showed that once we had a good grounding in that we could progress on to the fun stuff.

The fact that we did the new syllabus helped as well, as it gives good practical examples of how the theory you just learned can be applied.

My dad went back to college and got his degree and started doing research while I was in college, so he was a big influence as well.

Describe a typical day

There is a good bit of variety in the way I work. An average day would entail some reading on the area that I’m working on and then I’ll spend some time programming.

I also get to do some outreach activities, which is where we go to a school to give a talk, or judge a science fair. There is at least one talk every week in Tyndall, so I get to go to those as well.

My great passion is surf photography and this is very dependent on day-to-day changes in the weather and tides, so the flexibility in my work allows me to pursue my hobby.

What are the main challenges?

Grasping the new ideas and theories in the area I’m working in is quite challenging, but it’s why I’m doing research – to learn new things.

Because I’m working in the quantum area, this can prove pretty difficult as a lot of the theories are very different from the world that we are used to.

What’s “cool” about your work?

The rush you get when you get the result you were looking for, when your program finally works and the joy of learning new things. I’ll often come home to my girlfriend and just jabber away about what I found out that day.

Luckily she is doing a PhD in Chemistry and is able to understand most of what I’m saying even if sometimes I don’t myself. But it usually makes sense inside my head.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Being motivated is a bonus in any job you do. There isn’t always going to be someone looking over your shoulder (which is a good and bad thing) telling you what to do, so you need to be driven enough to keep working. Obviously to be a good scientist you need to be open to new ideas and willing to disregard what you thought you knew.]

What is your education to date?

St Caimin’s Secondary School, Shannon. I didn’t do Transition Year, but I probably should have because going into your Leaving a year older is almost definitely a bonus.

I did applied physics for four years in the University of Limerick and the most relevant subject was the optics module in the final semester. The further you progress in an area, the more interesting it becomes.

I realised I was more suited to theoretical work in college, as I always found the math modules very appealing – particularly the Fluid Mechanics module I took in final year. My final year project was on Quantum Tunnelling and is actually pretty relevant to do work I’m doing now.

After my degree, I did a one-year Graduate Diploma in Entrepreneurship. While this reinforced my belief that science is both more challenging and enjoyable than business, I did benefit from the course, particularly in relation to my presentation skills.

I also realised the importance of networking, which sounds corny but is actually very important.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

A willingness to learn more – I think this is really important so that you don’t get lazy in what you do.

I’m pretty extroverted – I like knowing a lot of people and as a result I have no problem going up and talking to new people. This really helps with networking and getting to know new people in your own workplace and meeting possible collaborators.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Make sure you look into the area that you will be researching. You don’t want to spend three to four years working in an area you’re only vaguely interested in. Don’t be afraid to be yourself.

What are the most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Persistence and curiosity

What kind of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Summer placements in big research centres are ideal for finding out about these types of research jobs.

Claire Raftery - studying for a PhD in Solar Astrophysics

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

My decision to take applied maths in secondary school was an important one. Not only did it set me up to choose a career in physics, but as the only girl in the class, it showed me that gender does not matter in this field.

Choosing to study astrophysics at the end of my second year in university was the other major milestone. I decided to follow this path because it was an interesting way of applying everyday science in an extraordinary way.

I can remember making the decision – I was outside the planetarium in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington DC and decided that this was a really interesting take on “regular” physics!

By taking physics with astrophysics, I was allowing myself the freedom to follow a career in either subject.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

My parents gave me the freedom to follow whatever path I chose. They never put any pressure on me to go in any particular direction but encouraged and supported me in any decision I made.

My maths/physics/applied maths teacher – Mr Phil Stack – had a large impact on my decision. He taught these three subjects during my Leaving Cert years.

The continuity between the three courses made me realise the importance of not isolating one subject and the importance of studying the big picture. This is something I have carried with me right the way through university.

What are the main challenges in your job?

The main challenge is combining many different aspects of physics (atomic physics, hydrodynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics etc) in a coherent manner in order to explain the phenomenon I am studying.

Other daily challenges include keeping up with the literature, debugging code and understanding the technicalities of instrumental effects. I struggle with time management.

There are many different aspects of this job – data analysis, paper writing, paper reading, proposal writing. They all need to be done and it is easy to get stuck on one or two and ignore the others.

What’s cool?

I get to study the Sun! I think that is very cool. The ball of plasma that we take for granted is, in fact, a highly variable and dynamic system and the fact that we can see the different phenomena at work (solar flares, CMEs, auroral activity) is fascinating.

To see the EUV (extreme ultraviolet) Sun for the first time will take your breath away. The other obvious cool aspect to my work is that I get to work at NASA for about four months of the year. This means spending time in Washington DC working with the experts in my field of research.

What’s not so cool?

Writing scientific journal articles. I was never very good at languages in school and was not really aware of the importance of paper writing when I decided to follow this path. But in this society it is “publish or perish”.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I am a good team player. It is important to be able to share problems and solutions with others in the group, in order to progress in your work. It is very difficult to succeed on your own with no guidance or advice.

At the same time, it is vital to be able to work through problems on your own. At the end of the day, you are the one that will need to understand every aspect of your work.

I am good at networking and at selling myself and my work to others in order to progress in the field. Lastly, I am good at interpreting physics.

In this field, all you have to work with is what observations can show you. It is my job to take the observations and combine them with theory to try to explain “why” we are seeing what we see.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

English, Irish, French, maths, geography, music, physics and applied maths. Maths, applied maths and physics were the three subjects that set me up for my career.

I also took two years of chemistry in university that helped me to better understand the atomic physics I am currently employing.

What is your education to date?

I have my Leaving Certificate, a Bachelor of Arts Moderatorship degree in natural sciences – Physics with astrophysics from Trinity College Dublin.

I am currently working towards a diploma in statistics (not necessary, just useful) and a PhD in Solar Astrophysics.

What has been the most rewarding event in your career so far?

Receiving the Catherine Macaulay Award for leadership in my final year of secondary school.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I am highly motivated and I do not like to be idle. I like to push myself to the limit and to prove that I can achieve. I am patient and punctual and though I can be scattered, I am generally quite organized when it comes to work.

What is your dream job?

I would love to be an astronaut. That really is physics at work!

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Stick with it. It is a bumpy ride but everyone has their good and bad days and in the end, the pay-off is worth it. To actually get the job, make sure you work hard (you do not need to be number one in the class or have straight As – though they do help).

To ‘fit’ this job, you have to be good at working in a team and on your own. You need to be able to talk about your work with others and then put your head down and work out problems by yourself.

The goal of this job is to become an expert in your chosen field and the only way to do that is by failing and trying again, so patience is very important.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Patience, determination and a desire to look beyond the obvious.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Anything involving computers. Research experience in a lab.

Dr Maura Rabbette - Astrophysicist

What have been the main milestones in your career so far?

My first was when I was about 12 years old, when I bought a pair of binoculars and spent many nights observing the starry sky. That was the beginning of a lifelong passion for astronomy.

I took physics and chemistry for the Leaving Certificate, then did a BSc in physics and followed it up with a PhD in astrophysics.

For my thesis I observed some of the most distant and active galaxies in the universe, using the European Space Agency’s most powerful telescopes on the island of La Palma.

How did you go about getting your current job?

Shortly after completing my PhD I applied for a US National Research Council postdoctoral research fellowship, to work in the Space Science Research Laboratory at NASA Ames Research Centre, California.

This research programme, also known as the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP), gives US and non-US citizens the chance to work at NASA.

It’s an excellent opportunity for Irish postdoctoral scientists and engineers to engage in ongoing NASA research programmes.

On completing my fellowship I was offered other opportunities to stay on at NASA as a research scientist which I was delighted to do – and, of course, living in California has its added benefits.

I would strongly urge any student in Ireland interested in working for NASA to look up its postdoctoral programme.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

Over the last decade I have been fortunate to work on some of NASA’s major projects.

I was principal investigator on a project which studied the greenhouse effect on Earth and its implications for other planets. We used a number of NASA’s Earth observing satellites and investigated the strong coupling between ocean warming and greenhouse radiative feedback.

We also looked outwards to other planets, for a better understanding of how our own planet has evolved. We estimated the “habitable zone” – that’s the distance from a star where liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet – of other planets way beyond our own solar system

In recent years much of my time has been taken up with the Kepler project. It’s a very exciting project in which one of the most powerful telescopes ever created was launched into space to look for planets similar to our own.

The challenge is to find terrestrial-size planets where liquid water, and possibly life, might exist.

My responsibilities included development and testing of computer algorithms for automatically analysing the light from thousands of stars in a search for orbiting planets.

I also carried out Kepler instrument tests to ensure that mission requirements were achieved.

What’s cool?

It was very exciting to be part of the Kepler science team and to witness the amazing night launch of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft on board a powerful Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

It was history in the making, because Kepler is NASA’s first mission that seeks to find out if the Earth is unique in the universe.

For the first time in human history we will know if there are Earth-size planets capable of supporting life beyond our solar system.

Having a career as a research scientist also offers many opportunities to work outside the office or laboratory. During my PhD and while working at NASA I’ve spent weeks, sometimes months, in places such as Alaska, Hawaii, Florida, Canary Islands, Japan and Europe.

What is your education to date?

• Leaving Certificate, including Maths, Physics, and Chemistry
• BSc in Physics, NUI Galway
• PhD in Astrophysics, University College Dublin

What aspects of your education have been most important for your job?

It is important to get a broad but good grounding in as many subjects as possible at the Leaving Cert and undergraduate levels, because these will be the tools of your trade as a research scientist.

Apart from studying physics for my BSc, I also studied maths, applied maths, numerical analysis, statistics, chemistry, computer programming and astrophysics.

Finally, English is important because, as a scientist, sharing information is an integral part of your work. You have to continuously write papers, reports and proposals and give oral presentations at conferences and seminars.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

For my PhD research I used large optical telescopes to look deep into the universe. It was very exciting to find active galaxies with evidence of giant black holes at their centres.

I suppose the European Space Agency fellowship, and then the NASA postdoctoral fellowship, were great milestones in my career – they opened up many opportunities for me.

It was a memorable occasion to be surrounded by family and friends as I watched the spectacular launch of the Kepler spacecraft as it started its mission.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

• An inquisitive mind
• Being self motivated and enjoying your work
• Perseverance – being able to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and tackle the problem from another angle

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for your type of work?

I would recommend applying for space science or astronomy summer schools.

While working on my PhD I was fortunate enough to win a European Space Agency fellowship to represent Ireland at the International Space University summer school in Barcelona.

It was a great opportunity to study and work with astrophysicists, astronauts, space scientists and engineers from over 40 countries. It was a fantastic academic and cultural experience.

I became part of the ISU alumni network and as a result I have friends and contacts in various universities and space agencies around the world.

Learn more

Find out more about the NASA Postdoctoral Programme and how to apply

Check out the ISU Space Studies programme

Visit NASA’s Kepler mission website