Dr Rachel Montgomery she/her

My primary research field is fundamental nuclear physics and is driven by my passion to understand the Universe on a deeper level. I am working collaboratively in large international teams on experiments based at particle accelerators. These experiments aim to study how the smallest building blocks of our visible Universe are bound together by the strong force of nature. My research involves developing new instruments and detectors to measure sub-atomic particles, and novel software to analyse big data.

I currently supervise PhD students who are analysing novel data collected from particle accelerators. I enjoy very much to work with them, learn from them, and observe them grow into independent researchers is extremely rewarding for me. I am further excited by the opportunity to grow my research team with new students from diverse backgrounds, and who can help me explore the interdisciplinary nature of my research. I believe a more diverse team is a much stronger one.

I am generally very interested in new technologies and data analysis techniques in science and engineering. I am also motivated to promote the many societal benefits of scientific research and science education. To this end, I am keen to pursue societal applications of nuclear physics research. For example, I am involved in developing a new photon sensor, which should be capable of timestamping single photons very precisely (<10ps). I would very much like to supervise a project related to this research and development. This device is exciting, as not only will it help us measure particles in nuclear experiments, but it is also very relevant for quantum technologies, medical imaging and microscopy in life sciences. I am also developing a different detector for my nuclear physics experiments which requires the use of AI to track the paths of particles within a gas volume, and I would be very keen to explore an interdisciplinary project exploring different ML and big data techniques.