Ben took part in our UK Summer School programme, where he did Chemistry at UCL. He has now completed a PhD in nuclear magnetic resonance and is working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. Read more to find out how he got here.

 

Tell us a bit about your background and where you come from.

I grew up in a small town in the East Midlands on the River Nene, and went to the local school where I really enjoyed science and maths. I remember never being able to decide which of the sciences I liked the most as I found them all fascinating. I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where after some exciting twists and turns I ended up specialising in chemistry. An off-hand comment in a seminar led me to applying to, and eventually completing, a PhD in solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance.

What was the highlight of your Sutton Trust programme?

I did a Chemistry Summer School at UCL, and I really enjoyed getting to experience London and to meet the other curious and passionate people on the course. As part of the summer school we got to go up the Shard and go to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime at the theatre. I was also very interested by the lectures that we got to see, which gave me a better idea of what university was actually like.

What skills did you gain from taking part in the programme?

Mostly I’d say I gained more confidence that I could actually apply for good universities, and that I could push myself to do these things. I also enjoyed getting to meet other people in a similar position to me. As part of the summer school they gave a lot of really useful information about applying to university, which was very useful when putting together my application and deciding where to go to.

Please tell us how taking part in your Sutton Trust programme has impacted you?

At the end of primary school my best friend at the time had the opportunity to go to the private school down the road. While we started from a similar position, that divergence made very clear for me how the school you go to makes a massive difference to the opportunities and education you receive. Despite having good AS level results, I was apprehensive of applying to the top universities as I felt that I wouldn’t fit in and wouldn’t have had those same experiences. The Sutton Trust Summer School programme provided a lot of reassurance that there was no need to be worried and gave very useful information for applying, which inspired me to give it a go – even if I was still nervous!

What was your first step in your career and how did you secure it?

My first step after undergraduate was to start a PhD at the University of Warwick. Prior to beginning the PhD I hadn’t really thought much about exactly what I would want to study for a PhD, but following an off-hand comment in a seminar in undergrad led me down a rabbit hole of looking at the wide range of what nuclear magnetic resonance could do, and after looking into the field more I became more sure that this was the sort of thing I’d be interested in moving into. Following my PhD I worked in the quantitative MRI group at the National Physical Laboratory for a year. After this, I had the opportunity to move to Austria and start a postdoc at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

What are you doing now and what are your plans for the future?

I’m currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria – something I could never have imagined myself doing when I was at school! At the moment I’m developing methods for looking at how metalloproteins move at the atomic scale by listening to the precession of nuclear spins – something which I still find hard to believe is possible. In the future I think I’d like to stay in the field of NMR and research, but I don’t currently know what sort of role this would involve.

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