Ph.D. results

[Dr Delphi]

To follow on from my previous thread I thought that I should let you know how I did. Well thanks to all the advice - I passed with only minor corrections, and actually it was quite fun towards then end

So again thanks to everyone for their advice,

Dr. Delphi

 

[Dr Delphi]

Nice one,

what was the PhD in, if I may ask?

Thanks everyone, its just starting to be believable that its done and that I'm not going to wake up and have to do it again!

My Ph.D. was on quantum physics, specifically modelling water systems with an additional electron with a view to attempting to understand some aspects of climate change.

 

[Dr Delphi]

My leg hurts. Can you take a look?

Alas, as I keep being told, I'm a dr. who can't cut people open, so I would recommend taking it to a (pretend) medical dr!

 

[Dr Delphi]

Congratulations!
What was your undergrad in?

Rocket science - actually it was Physics with Space Technology MPhys!

 

[Dr Delphi]

Congratulations. Could you explain what that is, I don't understand how you add an electron to water systems or how it relates to climate change? Could you give a bit of insight?

Ok, so simply put water systems are integral to the whole atmsopheric process, so for my thesis I have looked at all three of the pillars of climate change. These are; Ozone depletion, Acid Rain and Global warming.

Simply put, ozone depletion has always been considered to occur due to the photodissociation of CFCs in the gas phase (photodissociation is where a molecule will split due to sunlight) - a renowned scientist called Molina recieved the Nobel prize for this in the early 80's (if I remember correctly). This was then further extended upon by Susan Solomon, who showed that there was a correlation between the time of year and the depletion of the ozone. So she then suggested that the ice in the polar stratospheric ice clouds could act as a catalyst to the dissociation. Then more recently it has been suggested that the formation of an anionic ice surface through the attachment of an additional charge by cosmic rays colliding incidently with the ice nano particles could act as an even greater catalyst to the reaction. So we proved using extensive quantum simulation (upwards of 1,000,000 CPU hours on a major supercomputer) that this was the case and have a movie to show it (this is obviously very simplified).

-- Unfortunately I have to go out now, I will complete this later! --

 

[Dr Delphi]

Well done! Are you planning on doing a postdoc?

Yes I am currently waiting to hear back on a quantum physics postdoc in the US!