Profile

I read around 130 books a year, and most of those are for fun: I somehow managed to research books that I really enjoy reading. A lot of it is science fiction, but I also work on Madeleine L’Engle and Philip Pullman.

In my spare time I like gaming, and even that I have managed to drag into my research: I’m currently working on a research article on BioShock Infinite and Life is Strange.

I also like watching TV, and I’ll soon be on it: I’m the team captain of St Anne’s College, Oxford, on this season of University Challenge.

My PhD is called ‘The Stories of Quantum Physics’. I like that title, it has at least three words even toddlers understand. I look at the way stories can explain very complex things – in this case, quantum physics. Physicists will say that quantum physics is mostly a mind-boggling pile of maths. But why, then, does quantum physics pop up in children’s books, like Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials?

Even quantum physicists don’t fully understand their own field yet. There are lots of interpretations around. Some physicists like one, some like the other – and when they try to explain quantum physics to non-scientists, for example in a popular science book, they show their bias. I investigate those kinds of stories, which I’ve called ‘conflict narratives’, and see how they influence the public understanding of science… and science itself.

At the end of this month, I will hand in my PhD thesis, which will be about 280 pages long. Right after that, I’ll start my next job, as a researcher at the Centre for the Future of Intelligence, which is part of the University of Cambridge.

As a researcher who also teaches, there is a big difference between a typical day during term-time (when the students are in Oxford) and outside term-time (when the students have to leave Oxford). During term-time, I spend a lot of time marking, prepping, and teaching. Much like your teachers at school, although I have the luxury of often teaching one-on-one!

Outside term-time, in what students call the ‘vacation’, I don’t actually go on vacation. This is when most of my research gets done: I spend a lot of time in the libraries, or writing at home.

Several times a year, I go to conferences to present my research. I guess that can count as a vacation, it definitely involves travelling! I have just come back from presenting my work in Helsinki at the World Science Fiction Convention. I met George R.R. Martin.*
* Please note not all PhDs or conferences involve getting to meet the author of Game of Thrones.