Profile

Photo:

Edward Thorpe-Woods

I work in antimatter research, specifically as part of the ALPHA collaboration.

    • About Me:

      Hey I’m Ted! I’ve been living in Geneva for nearly 2 years now as a postgraduate researcher into Antimatter at CERN.

      Although I speak very little french, I love the country and enjoy kayaking and swimming in the lake during the summer, and skiing (very badly) during the winter months.

    • My pronouns are:

      He/Him

    • My Work:

      I work in antimatter research, specifically as part of the ALPHA collaboration. We create, trap, and study antihydrogen to better understand the properties of antimatter.

    • Read more

      At ALPHA we build ‘antihydrogen’ which is equivalent to normal hydrogen by made of of rare antiparticles. Hydrogen is made out of one electron and one proton, so in order to make antihydrogen, we need to combine antiprotons with antielectrons (called positrons). We call this delicate process ‘Mixing’.

      We want to keep the antihydrogen for study, we ‘trap’ it using powerful magnetic feilds. Once we have made and trapped antihydrogen we do various experiments on it to better understand its properties- these can be gravity experiments (dropping antihydrogen and seeing how it falls under earths gravity), laser experiments (what colour light does antihydrogen absorb and emit?), and others!

      We hope that by studying antimatter in this way we can find out if there are any unexpected differences between antimatter and normal matter, and better undestand what makes antimatter so rare!

    CV

    • Education:

      I went to Twyford High School in Acton, London. Then I went to the University of Bath for my Undergraduate, and then the University of Sussex for my masters. I’m now at Swansea University for my PhD- although I’ve never actually been there cause i’m based at CERN full time!

    • Qualifications:

      11 GCSES grades A*-C

      A, A, A* in Maths, Chemistry, Physics A levels

      1st Class Honours, BSc in Physics at the University of Bath

      Distinction, MSc in Particle Physics at the University of Sussex

      (Ongoing) PhD in Antimatter Physics with Swansea University at CERN

    • Work History:

      Alan Turing Institue – Resarch Assistant

      ViriCiti – Smart Charging Researcher

      Pubs of Distinction – Bartender

      PerkinElmer – R&D Student Placement

      NumberWork ‘n Words – Science and Maths Tutor

    • Employer:

      Swansea University

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        curious clumsy physicist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        I was just pleased to have go into university! No other plans

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Oh definately

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        Perhaps working at a pub again

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Radiohead

        What's your favourite food?

        It's got to be curry

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To be able to speak another language, to be able to play and instrument, to tidy my room more often

        Tell us a joke.

        Man I really don't know how to be funny on the spot