Profile
Maddison Coke
sad to be evicted but had a blast
My CV
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Education:
University; UCL 2012-2016, Imperial 2011-2016 School: Highworth Grammar School 2004-2011
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Qualifications:
MSci in chemistry
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Work History:
One year at GSK pharamcuticals looking at how drugs transport in your body
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Current Job:
PhD student
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I have been working with a chamber that creates beams of atoms in a vacuum for 4 years. We use these beams to create different and new materials- from tiny wires to sheets of materials to boulder type shapes. We do everything in a chamber with no air in it so that we get the purest material and we have the most control over what we are growing. The machine is called a Molecular Beam Epitaxy Chamber, but we like to call her Martha. Me and my other students follow a sample through the whole process, we grow it, look at its properties, create tiny circuits with them and finally see how electricity passes through them in different conditions.
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My Typical Day:
Days in the lab involve lots of controlling of values, heating and cooling as well as actully handling samples, although the odd office day just involves a lot of emails.
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I run the lab so in the morning I have to make sure that all the pumps are running as they should and machine is running safely. If I am in the lab that day I will wash all my samples and load them into the chamber, heat up my samples before I open them up to the beams of molecules. This cleans them but also makes sure that the molecules have enough energy to create the best material. We have 4 pumps, 3 beams of molecules and a plasma beam to monitor so a lot of my time is spent checking these are working or adjusting them. Many of the machines I work on are similar in that you set up what you want to do, like a recipe, and then the rest of the time you monitor to make sure it runs well. Robots can only do so much!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
Take my science lego roadshow around the UK!
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Relaxed, whimsical, bright
Were you ever in trouble at school?
sleeping in class, I used the text book to cover my face :s
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Macklemore
What's your favourite food?
Pizza
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
(1) For Martha (my machine) never to break again (2) Win a Nobel Prize (which means I would have done some awesome science double win) (3) Lifetime supply of pizza without consequences
Tell us a joke.
How do trees get on the internet? They log in!
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