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Well I’m not, hopefully I have some missionary zeal but hopefully not too much, I’m hopefully not too zealous about it. I think it’s very important, that’s basically why I’m in physics. I mean I want to pass the message on. I do think it’s an incredibly beautiful subject. I couldn’t imagine any other form of science which is absolutely fundamental, you know, to the way we are with physics. Ultimately even biology, you talk about the science of life, you know, bacteria, cells, etc, are still formed in the end out of protons and we have to understand what protons are made up out of, and that’s basically what I’m doing, you know, trying to find out what, about building blocks and how do they talk to each other. And if you understand that then you’ve understood just about everything else.

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I only really took an interest in physics when I was twelve or thirteen. At that point I started to knuckle down in school as well and I realised that actually, you know, maybe I could actually make something out of my life and maybe become a scientist. So it was at the age of fifteen or sixteen when I thought this is really what I actually want to do. Then as, now in fact as well, the idea of actually going out and wearing a suit to work and sitting in an office and doing the same thing every day absolutely frightened me. I thought there must be more to life than this, and physics seemed possibly the easiest option for me in that sense, to actually keep the lifestyle that I want, do something which is also incredibly interesting and worthwhile.

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I would describe the learning process as being like starting a car. It often might take ten or fifteen turns of the ignition key before you’re up and running, but once you are that’s it. Once it’s clicked, once the engine’s rolling away and you’ve understood all of this then suddenly that’s it, you’re off. You can understand the whole world of physics, you can apply it and understand it in so many different situations.

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For me the great plus about staying in science is that you never stop learning. If you go off into industry you train to do one task and if you’re unfortunate you’ll keep on doing that task for the rest of your life.

My job involves learning basically new skills every day, every week and I really, really appreciate that. It keeps me mentally sharp, and I certainly think I would be a totally different person if I’d become an accountant than I am from a physicist. I wouldn’t be as well rounded a person, I wouldn’t have such an international outlook and basically I wouldn’t be as happy.

A lot of people think my lifestyle is glamorous and I guess superficially it actually is but it’s really, really hard work. Obviously it does have some perks, you do get to see the world but it’s not a holiday, and people should really remember that. You’re working almost all of the time, you don’t have that time just to wind down, just to relax.