New to the QUASAR Group
A warm welcome to Liam Soomary, who joins the QUASAR Group as PhD student. Liam will be based at The Cockcroft Institute where he will be studying the ‘Development of preparation and commissioning techniques for high brightness photoelectron sources used in accelerator applications’ which will see Liam focusing on the fabrication and testing of metal and semiconductor photocathode sources, where to begin with he will be working with TESS and later with VELA. The research is relevant both for the current CLARA FEL facility and more specifically for the future UK XFEL project, which is a high priority area for ASTeC.
Liam obtained his bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Portsmouth. During his second year he had the unique opportunity to spend the summer at the University of Wrocław for a work placement under the ERASMUS+ exchange program, working with mono-crystals and ultra-high vacuum technology.
He went on to study more about vacuum technology in his third year, where for his dissertation he characterized the surfaces of SiC(0001)-4H monocrystals, with his poster winning the 2018 Applied Materials Society award.
Welcome!