Profile

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Joshua McAteer

My CV

  • Education:

    Collingwood College – secondary school and sixth form
    The University of Nottingham – MSci Physics (Hons)
    The University of Nottingham and University of Oxford – PhD (currently)

    I did an undergraduate master’s degree at Nottingham – which is quite common in the UK for physics. It’s like a BSc but with one additional year. The last year was really interesting as we mostly worked on a research project.

  • Qualifications:

    Master’s degree in physics (Hons).
    A-level Chemistry, Maths, Physics
    As Biology, Further Maths

  • Work History:

    Previously: Receptionist in an Optician’s practice
    I also did an internship in which I used machine learning to track drones.

  • Current Job:

    Currently: Final year PhD student

    • About Me:

      I’ve always been interested in physics, I’m really lucky that I get to do it every day. I really enjoy photography, I particularly like to photograph small insects and spiders which I find in the garden or in parks – people probably think I’m a bit odd holding up a leaf with a big camera and flash waiting for the spiders to turn just right.

    • Read more

      I live in Nottingham with my girlfriend. We have a cat called Arthur, he sometimes likes to hide in cupboards.

      I have a range of interests in science including optics, astronomy, medical physics, mechanical and electrical engineering. Some of which I know a lot about, and some of which I know much less about. I thought I wanted to be an astrophysicist, but I later realised that I was most interested in making the images rather than working out what the images were of. Since then I’ve built novel kinds of microscopes, and currently I work with MRI scanners.

    • Read more

      MRI scanners take images of your body using very strong magnetic fields and radio waves. Typically MRI scans take a long time which limits the number of patients which doctors can scan in a day – also if someone moves in an MRI scanner it blurs the image (just like if you move when someone takes a photo in dim light) so making the scans faster is really important.

      I use a clever bit of maths called compressed sensing which lets us capture a small amount of the data and fill in the rest of it with a very good approximation of the true information. This technology is being applied to lots of different areas from medical imaging, to satellite communication, to improving the cameras on mobile phones.

      On the subject of phones, I accidentally took mine into the room with the MRI machine. The scanner I use has a magnetic field strength which is about 17,000 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field. Somehow it was fine, although I don’t think I’ll make that mistake again.

    • My Typical Day:

      At the moment my work is split between working from home where I run simulations of my experiments on computers and experimental work where I work in a hospital testing out the changes I’ve made on MRI scanners.

      The scanners I work with are part of my university physics department and we rarely scan patients. However, with the dangers of COVID-19, we have to be very careful with wiping down surfaces with alcohol and wearing facemasks and other PPE.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Inquisitive, passionate, creative

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I wanted to be a scientist

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Cake is a great band, as is Wheatus

Questions answered by Joshua

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