Thomas Woodroof
Thomas is a PhD student from the UK and he is funded by the EPSRC.
What were your main reasons for choosing to undertake postgraduate research at the University of Liverpool?
The programme offered a multi-disciplinary project (applied nuclear physics and environmental science) with generous funding to take advantage of my supervisors' extensive academic and industrial contacts in the UK and abroad. The opportunity to do a research master's with students from a wide variety of backgrounds before also appealed.
Can you summarise your postgraduate research in a few sentences?
I'm working with gamma ray imaging systems to develop a novel method of studying the dynamics of caesium-137 in the terrestrial environment around the Fukushima Daiich nuclear power plant. There are currently large uncertainties associated with measurements of processes such as plant uptake and soil transport, and I hope to demonstrate that much more reliable measurements are possible using Compton imaging. Improving our understanding of these processes will ultimately assist the decontamination efforts around the plant.
How do you believe postgraduate research will help your career prospects?
Postgraduate research will prepare me for an interesting and varied career, either in academia or industry. Having undertaken a placement at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California (and with more planned at the UK's National Nuclear Laboratory and the University of Tsukuba in Japan), and gone on field trips to Fukushima and Chernobyl, my wide range of contacts and experience in multiple disciplines put me in a particularly strong position.