Julio: Big Conference for Young Mathematicians

Here's an event that will take place at the University of Bristol on 2nd April 2012:

Young Researchers in Mathematics Conference 2012.

The Young Researchers in Mathematics Conference is an annual event that aims to involve post-graduate and post-doctoral students at every level. It is a chance to meet and discuss research and ideas with other students from across the country. The conference spans a wide variety of disciplines arranged into tracks, each of which includes a keynote speaker and contributed talks by young researchers. There will also be plenary lectures of interest to the entire audience. For a full list of tracks and keynote speakers, please visit the conference website.

Starts: 11:00am on 2nd April 2012
Finishes: 4th April 2012
Venue: Queen's Building on University Walk, University of Bristol.

Angel: Two shootings from the sixth floor and one from the ground

Cabot Tower sunset

The Creation of Woody

when the tree found fascination for colours

Angel: Fancy riding the white lion?

 

I'm always thinking that I should stop my lab work for a sec to write something on this space, I would like to have plenty of time to write all those ideas coming up in my mind, along the day, such as beautiful crystals which not necessarily means progress in your research project or boast about astonishing sunsets from my preferential view on the sixth floor of the School of Chemistry - If you follow Great George on twitter, then you have seen one of these pictures!

My PhD has became something extremely addictive, even though, for along a period of time I have not got positive results. This non-stop apatite, to keep on to achieve the main objectives of my research project, drags me up long hours working into the lab, doing result analysis and reading; whether that the output of my research could show a highly impact on my field of study or not.

Of course in most of the cases, PhD students are always wishing, in some cases stating, that their research is going to have a huge impact on their areas. I wouldn’t lie saying that see "one of my publications" on the cover of one of those fancy journals or having loads of citations are not part of my ambitions. Nevertheless, rather to have on my plate such a heavy stress factor, I prefer do my best in something which could be exciting and delightful to myself. In the meantime, I am really anxious to see the output of my research project.

On the other hand, getting out of the context of this post, I would like to invite you to the Latin American Week, which will take place from 5-10 March 2012. Event organized for the School of Modern Languages:

“Week long series of events including film screenings, translation workshops, language taster session, portrait photography plus a Latin American Forum in the Mall Galleries, Broadmead”

Click on me to see the program!

James: A week @ NPL: Day 4

I went in today to make the most of my last two days at NPL. Only to find my sample torn in two by the test rig having gone haywire in the night. Tragedy, or maybe not I know exactly what time, temperature and force it broke. So now I have a high temperature fracture surface to investigate.
So with extra data, although fortuitously, in hand I lay out the final few experiments required before I return to Bristol. I even found time to enjoy my lunch in the park by the River Thames, rather unseasonable 12 degrees in the Richmond area today.
So I left this evening my final over night run with far less apprehension than you may anticipate as even if it goes wrong I can still take something away from it.
One more sleep before the end of this little escapade.

James: A week @ NPL: Day 3

Today was somewhat a different day again. After sleeping on my results, not literally, I was confident that I knew what was going on and that with some straight forward tests when I get home next week I will ascertain if I'm right or not.
So I arrived at NPL to conduct my experiments totally unflustered and relaxed. And everything went as planned which left me at a little of a loss and to realise that it is quite difficult to procrastinate without the internet or friends around. Thus I got my head down and set about quite a boring day of writing.
Hope to give you something more interesting to read tomorrow.

James: A week @ NPL: Day 2

I found myself dragging my feet this morning, this was because after pondering over my experiment in the evening I felt that I only had one roll of the dice left before I may have to retreat home early with my tail between my legs.
So I pottered around doing any other job I could think of before testing my experiment again, eventually just before lunch I bit the bullet (before my sandwich). Amazingly it did something whether it had done what wanted was going to have to wait until after my lunch.
What I had change was the size of my samples, with thanks to the technicians at NPL. To give a little idea as to what I was up to, I was looking to conduct tests on metal samples to see how there resistivity changed with heat treatment but crucially this requires the sample getting hot when you put a high current through it. But yesterday when it didn't work the current density wasn't high enough thus making the samples smaller was an easy way to increase the current density running through the samples as I couldn't increase the current.
So the vital question when I came back from lunch what had happened? Well the exact opposite of what I expected! But as with all science any result is a positive one, you just have to understand what it means.
I have now also set one to run over night so we shall see what tomorrow brings.

James: A week @ NPL - Day 1

Occasionally in research you need equipment that your university does not have so you are required to go away to another university or facility.
I have had the opportunity to spend this week at the national physics laboratories to conduct some resistivity tests.
With coming away to do work it means you spend a lot of time planning and preparing so you become naturally very invested and excited about the experiment you are going to do. Myself when I turned up this morning had butterflies and loads of nervous energy. But unfortunately this works both ways; almost immediately what we were looking to do failed, which was totally gut wrenching. Still NPL is an impressive facility and we have been able to use their workshop in order to 'rescue' the work. This is the nature of research however, the work you are doing has never been done before so even with your best guess you don't know what is actually going to happen.
Looking forward to tomorrow (still) and a new attempt, let us hope I don't have to start again rethink.