Earth and Environmental Sciences (SEES)
Investment Banker
Martin Lawless
I am currently a Managing Director at a major global investment bank, having built a career trading complex derivative products in Foreign Exchange and Commodities. I have also been involved in weather derivatives and am now deeply involved in investment strategies linked to climate change, particularly in alternative and renewable energy sources.
Stochastic processes familiar to physicists underpin most financial models. A working familiarity with second-order differential equations and Monte Carlo simulations, learnt as a physicist, are at the centre of my career. I would not have succeeded without a scientist’s curiosity and rigorous analytical approach.
The Applied Physics course at Portsmouth provided me with not only the necessary theoretical tools but also the interest and ability to apply them beyond classroom physics. Having achieved a First at Portsmouth, I was accepted to Oxford University where I gained Ph.D. studying the practical implications of quantum mechanics in ultra-small semiconductor structures.
Research Scientist
Steve Aplin
Since finishing my PhD at Portsmouth in 2003, I have been working as a research scientist at the Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY). My research concerns the field of Particle Physics, and I am currently working on the International Linear Collider (ILC) project. The ILC is a proposed electron-positron collider that will complement the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a proton-proton collider at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), and will give physicists a new cosmic doorway to explore energy regimes beyond the reach of today's accelerators.
My first opportunity in research was provided through the placement year which I undertook as part of my undergraduate studies at Portsmouth. I spent the third year of my course working at DESY, and basically everything grew out of that. That year provided me with a great chance to build on the things which I had leant in the first two years of my course, and instilled in me a real focus for the rest of my course.
Certainly when doing my A-levels nobody thought I would end up as a research scientist, least of all me. Well I can happily say that the opportunities provided to me at Portsmouth certainly changed all that.
Physics Teacher
Alison Hill
I am a part-time physics teacher at Havant Sixth Form College (although when I started working there I was full time.) I am currently also teaching Level 1 and Level 2 Physics at the International College Portsmouth.
I have taught GCSE, AS and A2 level Physics at Havant as well as A level General Studies. I am a pastoral tutor which involves supporting students and in particular helping them to make their University applications and writing their UCAS references.
After I graduated from Portsmouth I went to Southampton University for a year where I completed a PGCE in science with a specialism in physics. This qualified me to teach in the secondary sector. I was sponsored by the Stock Exchange who believed that physics teachers should have some experience of physics in industry. The sponsorship involved working in industry for the first three summers of my teaching career. I did this at IBM Havant in their Flexi-circuits department.
I had already gained some industrial experience during my degree as it was then a sandwich course and I had spent six months working at the Atomic Energy Establishment at Winfrith and another six months at the Medical Physics Department at St Mary’s Hospital. These experiences were useful in helping me to decide that I wanted to go into teaching and ensuring that I had some knowledge of physics and its uses in industry and medicine.
