Profile
Annie Dolan
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About Me:
I’m a PhD student currently living in Geneva and working at CERN.
When I’m not working I like to read, take lots of photographs, visit museums and walk my dog… And play too much Animal Crossing.
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My pronouns are:
She/her
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I'm a member of team ISOLDE
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My Work:
I work at ISOLDE, CERN where I study shapes and behaviours of exotic nuclei.
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Read more
ISOLDE is a radioactive ion beam facility. Here, radioactive ions (which have short half-lives so decay away quickly) are created. They’re then accelerated into a beam before they can decay away by using lasers, very strong magnets and linear accelerators.
The experiment I work on is called the ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer (ISS). It is a giant magnet that was previously an MRI machine in a hospital in Australia. The radioactive beam is transported to the magnet chamber where it smashes into a target. This causes nuclear transfer reactions (transferring a proton or neutron between nuclei). The paths of the particles that are created in the reactions are bent by the magnetic field (2 – 2.5 T) towards detectors where we measure their energy. From this we can reconstruct their path in the magnet and determine lots of information about the nuclei involved in the reaction!
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Education:
2009 – 2016: I attended St Julie’s Catholic High School in Liverpool where I completed my GCSEs and A-Levels.
2016 – 2020: I did an integrated master’s in physics (MPhys).
2020 – 2024 (hopefully): I am currently working towards a PhD in nuclear physics with the University of Liverpool. As part of this I am currently living in Geneva, Switzerland and working at CERN.
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Qualifications:
GCSEs: 4 As, 6 A*s
A-Levels: 3 As (Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry), B (Physics)
Physics MPhys from University of Liverpool
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Work History:
I’ve only ever had one real job which was working in a pub for a few years during my undergraduate degree.
I also participated in some physics outreach work with the Physics Outreach Group at the university. Doing this I gained experience in teaching physics to pupils of different ages from around Liverpool.
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My Interview
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What did you want to be after you left school?
A postman
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Usually just for talking too much or getting too distracted
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
Something where I could be with lots of dogs all day
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Tame Impala
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