Alie

I joined Imperial College in 2017, initially to do an MSc in Physics with Theoretical Physics. At the end of my second year, I switched to MSc Physics which gave me the opportunity to do more labs. I’ve just finished the first year of my PhD at Imperial College in the High Energy Physics group.

I grew up in France, until my family moved to London in 2014 when I was 15. I started my high school curriculum in the French Lycée in South Kensington. It is true that I haven’t moved very far but I also really like the feeling of knowing an area very well. I had heard a lot about Imperial and could chat with students before I applied which made my transition to Imperial. After five years, Imperial is my home and I love the community here. Even after my undergraduate graduation I still cannot cross campus without seeing at least one friend. It’s really easy to keep in contact with people, even if you don’t work together.

Adjusting to university 

I was quite shy and didn’t want to seek out help, I just assumed that everyone else was struggling too.  While in my second year, I started to work with a professor who  helped me out whenever I had problems and today, we are good friends. For me, the key for adjusting to university was to find my “tribe” after that it was almost only joy!  

A turning point for me came at the end of my second year. We were working on an interferometry experiment in optics where we were supposed to displace a mirror very smoothly using an expensive stage. No one in the lab was managing to get the expected results. The professor asked for someone to dedicate their time and find out what was going wrong with the experiment, and I remember vividly thinking: I’m going to try this!

I threw myself into this question and research topic, taking an almost PhD approach by working collaboratively with the professor but also the lab technicians, developing code, making plots and obviously scratching my head a lot! After a month and a half, I ended up tracking down the problem with the stage and writing a calibration code to essentially fix it. The professor then offered me to work with him on a Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) project where I could finish my work on the stages. The UROP feels a lot like research and I personally loved the experience, which led me to do two more in my third and final year.

This first experience of research and problem solving gave me a real boost – knowing that with hard work, time and dedication you can really make a difference gave me the confidence I needed to succeed in my studies. This also convinced me that I was more of an experimentalist and lead me to switch to the MSc Physics.

Looking to the future

I do really like research and I feel very at ease in it. Throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate studies I have been teaching.. I find teaching enlightening and very rewarding, I really feel like I can make a difference! This summer I co-ran the Physics stream at the Global Summer School. I’m enjoying these new, more managerial roles very much, and as always, the teaching and outreach aspects of my PhD.

I don’t have a long-term goal, this could be research or environment-oriented research and development - I don’t know yet, as I tend to see and take things step-by-step. I thought studying as an undergraduate at one of the best universities in the world would be the last step, and now here I am studying for my PhD! I’ve got great support at Imperial – I’m always encouraged to experiment and see what I can find.