Imperial Materials

Many Undergraduate students in the Department of Materials will choose to undertake an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Programme. Sometimes the research can lead to co-authorships with the academic group.

This was the case for second-year Undergraduate student Yingxu Li and fourth-year Undergraduate student Seif Mehanna, whose research contributed to a recent paper with Dr Mark Oxborrow, now published in Physical Review Applied. The paper demonstrates how a cheap organic material can be exploited to detect extremely weak radio signals so weak that the signal contains only a small number of radio-frequency photons.

Both students have provided us with a snapshot of the research they did for the paper and their UROP experience.

Seif Mehanna

My part of the research aimed to see if we could get a maser to run using a much cheaper and less bulky light source than a massive medical laser. Lasers tend to be very inefficient at producing yellow light, so we used a luminescent concentrator instead. Luminescent concentrators are devices that concentrate and shift the colour of light, so you end up with a very bright light with the desired wavelength (colour).

I made this very simple setup where we had a luminescent concentrator that Dr Oxborrow had made earlier, surrounded it with two Soviet-made Xe-flash lamps held up with lab clamps, and had a sample at the end of the concentrator that we tried to get to mase. As old as those lamps were, they’re very energy efficient and did a great job! They were so powerful that you could feel when they went off, just like with the flash in a professional studio. Sometimes you don’t need the newest and fanciest equipment to be on the cutting edge of science!

I’m pleased to see the consequences of my research included in this paper, and I hope that it shows that you can have fun and look to the past while doing pioneering research to advance the future.

Yingxu Li

My research contribution to the paper was to render the instrument setup of this newly-developed MASTER, trying to make it look real as in reality. Figures 5(a) and (b) in the publication were produced by the 3-D rendering program, “Blender”.

This UROP was the first-ever research experience in my life, definitely unforgettable! Although the whole programme shifted to online-based, I learned a lot about MASER and 3D graphical modelling using Blender software. Also, the working vibe in Dr Mark Oxborrow’s team was so welcoming, and everyone in the team was happy to help me as “a baby in scientific research”. It gave me an immersive insight into researchers’ lives and a taste of how a publication paper was produced. Last but not least, thank you to Dr Oxborrow for allowing me to contribute to the paper. It made the summer of 2020 so special!

I hope this can show the fantastic opportunities available to students in our department.

Hear more from our students about their UROPs and find out how to apply.

Read Student Interviews: We co-authored a paper using research from our UROP in full

To celebrate LGBT STEM Day 2020, Dr Ben Britton, Reader in Metallurgy and Microscopy – and RAEng Research Fellow, has shared more about LGBT+ STEM Day, his research and how simple acts from everyone can go a long way.

Can you tell us more about yourself and your research?

Hi, I’m Ben and my pronouns are he/him. I’m a Reader in Metallurgy and Microscopy, and I lead a group who try to understand how metals are processed, perform and ultimately fail in high-risk high-value applications, such as nuclear power plants, aeroengines, and the petrochemical industry. We work together to combine experiments and simulations together, collaborating with folks across Imperial, in industry and across the world. I also tweet a bit (@bmatb), teach a bit, and have other interests.

What does LGBTSTEMDay mean to you and why is it important for everyone?

I am not only a material scientist and engineer, I’m also a gay man. Many folks may suggest that my sexuality and gender identity have no relevance for my work. This is incorrect, as numerous surveys and academic papers tell a different story. There is substantive co-correlation of evidence that the relationships we form and who we connect with influence our successes in work and beyond. LGBTSTEMDay provides people who identify as ‘not straight’ and/or ‘not cisgendered’ (i.e. those whose current gender identity matches their gender identity at birth) to celebrate contributions of those people like us, create communities, and create meaningful changes to the practice of science, technology, engineering and maths across the world.

On a more personal level, I also used #LGBTSTEMDay to ‘come out’ more widely in public. As frankly, it is EXHAUSTING to hide this part of your identity and to worry about the implications on your career. So #LGBTSTEMDay has, as I shared in a public talk at the College, entitled me to say: go and read my blog piece – ‘So it’s #LGBTSTEMDay…so what?’

Who are your greatest role models in STEM?

This is always a challenge. Most historical queer figures have had their queer identity written out of the history books. Additionally, one of the privileges for me, as a white man in STEM, is that there are many people like me who have ‘succeeded’ and can be seen in positions of power. This also highlights the imbalance in our midst, especially for those who are at the intersection of minority identities and are doubly marginalised (e.g. people who identify as Black and queer).

There are efforts to correct this, as, for instance, Dr Jess Wade (and many others) have been strengthening the representation of individuals from marginalised groups on Wikipedia, and so we can now more easily identify and empathise with existing role models in our field. There are also professional networks, such as IOM3Pride, LGBTQ+ STEM, Pride in STEM, 500 Queer Scientists and many more where LGBTQ+ people can find people like them, share experiences, and benefit from networking opportunities that they have been (directly and indirectly) excluded from.

How can everyone be an ally and action for change?

I want co-conspirators who are willing to say that the status quo is not good enough, and to agitate for change. There is no reason why we should sustain and support systems that establish marginalisation of individuals based upon their sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as other protected characteristics (and socio-economic class).

There are old and new barriers that actively exclude LGBT+ people and members of other minority groups from participating, and these exist both within the Department, within the College, in the Profession and in wider society. Dismantling these all at once is a daunting task, but simple acts can go a long way, and lots of the work to identify these issues has been done already. So if you want a more refined list of recommendations, you should read the Royal Society of Chemistry, Institute of Physics and Royal Astronomical Society report on Exploring the Workplace Climate for LGBT+ Physical Scientists. 

Read LGBTSTEMDay: Interview with Dr Ben Britton in full