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Physics Career Talk

On Friday, Hayley Cavanagh, who is a Senior Accelerator Physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, visited the Academy. Hayley spoke to girls in Years 8, 9 and 10 about how she came to become an accelerator physicist and how particle accelerators work.

On Friday, Hayley Cavanagh, who is a Senior Accelerator Physicist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, visited the Academy. Hayley spoke to girls in Years 8, 9 and 10 about how she came to become an accelerator physicist and how particle accelerators work.

Hayley  explained what her job actually entails on a day to day basis to emphasise that physics is not all about complicated equations and showed the students images of the many cities around the world she has visited as part of her work to illustrate how varied the job can be and the many opportunities it can offer.

To finish, Hayley shared information about some of her friends and the different fields that they ended up working in as a result of taking a Physics degree course at York University. Careers included medical physics for the NHS, petrological physics for BP searching for new oil fields and science journalism. 

Science Teacher Miss Oliver said: The talk was interesting and inspirational. The students were able to gain a great insight into the types of careers and opportunities physics can lead into and had the chance to ask Hayley any questions they had.’

The visit was part of an initative to encourage more girls to take up STEM subjects, in particular physics and maths, at A Level and beyond.