Profile - Electromagnetic Zone

Curriculum Vitae

Education:

Leeds University ’13-now (PhD), ’09-’13 (MPhys); McGill University, Canada, ’11-’12 (year abroad);
Qualifications:

MPhys Physics with Nanotechnology
Work History:

Leeds Uni – PhD, Leeds Uni – tour guide, summer researcher, mentor. Kings Head – Waitressing!
Current Job:

PhD student researcher in Physics
Employer:

University of Leeds, School of Physics and Astronomy

Favourite Thing:

I love having the power to change the world with what I do.
Me and my work

I am making a new way of sending secret messages so that not even the best hackers could figure them out!
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Phone calls, wi-fi, 3G, 4G, GPS, even bluetooth and the new ‘near field communication (NFC)’ (for those of you with fancy new phones) all have one thing in common. They use microwaves. Not like the machine in your kitchen though! Microwaves are made of the same stuff as light but with much less energy, so you can’t see them. You also don’t need special equipment to measure them with accuracy- they are quite big. This means that you can see something called ‘the uncertainty principle’ quite easily.

Every heard of the uncertainty principle? It means that you can’t know absolutely everything about something. There is always a bit you don’t know. No matter how hard you try. Even if you are a super human hacker scientist.

How does this help? Well, If I send you something that is top secret, by microwaves, and an evil eavesdropper (let’s call her Eve) tries to examine it, there will always be bits of it she can’t know about. Sad Eve is sad. I hid the secret bit where she can’t find it! Sure, she knows a bit of what I’m trying to say, but she can’t know all of it. So I’m going to capitalise on that. Ta-da, we have a secret!

I am trying to make this work in some satellites at the moment and making an app so that you can do it with text messages.
My Typical Day

Tinkering with satellites, coding a new phone app for secret messages, playing with our atomic clock, building model phones, teaching workshops, reading about new science.
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I don’t like to sit at a desk. Desks are boring. I wear comfy jeans to work so I can crawl around in the lab and get my hands dirty playing with our machines and different bits of kit (the cryostat is my favourite- it cools things down to 0.01K. That’s pretty much the coldest you can get). I don’t just work on my own project too- there’s always other stuff to be doing- some of the projects going on in the lab include looking at lasers and how they work and seeing if quantum computers and teleportation are possible.

I spend some of my time playing with a satellite system and getting secret messages to work in that.

I usually have to spend a bit of time at my computer though. Coding a secret messages app, and coding the insides of the phone that I am building.

Sometimes I am off teaching students in the teaching labs. Other times I go out to schools to talk about physics careers. And sometimes I go to conferences to talk about my work with other scientists. I also have to go and meet up with other people that I am working with across the country which is always fun.
What I'd do with the money

Sci-fi to Sci-FACT roadshow with an accompanying app (and teacher resource pack) to show how some of the most exciting science fiction inventions are actually being made!
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Did you know that the famous ‘tractor beams’ of sci-fi are actually starting to be a reality? How about that scientists have managed to teleport light over the river Danube? Did you know that some people are currently working on making invisibility cloaks? Have you ever wondered if time travel is possible? Or if a TARDIS is actually a physical possibility? Let your imagination go wild- this is what feeds science.

These types of questions inspire me to do my work and I want to share them. With the money I will create activities, videos, an app and a website (with a resource pack for teachers) to explore these questions and their answers, focussing on different popular sci-fi programmes. It will include some demo’s and experiments that you can try at home or school. I will also do a road-show and visit some local schools to do live talks there too, I can’t visit everyone but no one will miss out as it will all be on the internet! It will be fun, engaging and hopefully capturing imaginations everywhere.
My Interview
- How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
  
  Adventurous, curious, excitable.
  
  Who is your favourite singer or band?
  
  I’m a bit in love with George Ezra’s voice, but also Avicii.
  
  What's your favourite food?
  
  Yorkshire puddings, apple crumble, CHEESE, custard… I love lots of food.
  
  What is the most fun thing you've done?
  
  I lived in Canada for a year as part of my degree, it was the biggest adventure ever.
  
  What did you want to be after you left school?
  
  Q from James Bond.
  
  Were you ever in trouble at school?
  
  Often for being late and sometimes for forgetting homework too.
  
  What was your favourite subject at school?
  
  Maths or drama.
  
  What's the best thing you've done as a scientist?
  
  A paper I helped write recently got accepted to be published- that was a pretty amazing feeling!
  
  What or who inspired you to become a scientist?
  
  I read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and I realised that some of those technologies could be made real with a bit of imagination and physics knowledge.
  
  If you weren't a scientist, what would you be?
  
  A horse rider, a journalist, in the RAF, a political activist for women’s and lgbt rights, a vet, a travel writer, an explorer or a musician.
  
  If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
  
  1) To be always happy and joyful 2) To have my family and friends safe and always around me 3) To travel the world.
  
  Tell us a joke.
  
  What do you call an alligator in a vest? An investigator.
Other stuff
- Work photos:
My profile link:
https://electroj15.imascientist.org.uk/profile/freyawilson/
Short link: https://ias.im/u.88334