My Bang Petersen is a Master student at Institute of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University
Where are you studying, and what degree are you pursuing?
I’m currently writing my masters thesis in physics at the Institute of Physics and Astronomy at Aarhus University. My field of study is experimental solid state physics and materials science. This means that I have been doing lots of experiments in several different labs around europe.
What motivated you to study physics or engineering?
I have always liked science and in high school I realized that I enjoyed physics the most. I was always very split between doing chemistry or physics but ended up doing physics as I found the most interesting subjects here. This has worked out very well for me now as the subject of my masters thesis lies on the intersection between physics and nanoscience.
What has been your favorite course or topic in physics so far?
My two favorite topics in physics are nuclear physics and solid state physics. The courses covering these topics have taught me all kinds of things about nuclear reactions and nuclear energy but also about crystals/materials and the way they are made up.
A common thing for these courses is that they have some application in the real world instead of being just an abstract theory. For example nuclear physics can be used to study the production of new green energy and solid state physics can be used in the study of new materials for example to be used in electronics. I guess you can say that I like physics to be a bit grounded in reality with very real and experimental uses.
Tell us about a cool project you have worked on or are currently working on.
The beginning of my solid state adventure was my bachelor’s project. My good friend and I got to make an experimental bachelor’s project together in the labs at the university. It has a part of assembling a vacuum chamber and using the chamber to do experimental analysis of a gold-crystal.
This was very cool as we got to build a vacuum chamber with parts found around the lab and got to know all the thought that goes behind making a working experimental setup. This is not an opportunity that comes by very often. We did two different types of surface science analyses called Low Energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) which means that we got two different experimental images of how the surface of a gold surface looks on a very small scale.
This project has been very useful to me as I’m still working with experimental physics now two years after I got my bachelor’s degree. It is also very cool to be able to say that I built a vacuum chamber (which actually worked!) and could do surface science-experiments.
What kind of career do you envision for yourself after your engineering studies?
After I wrap up the physics at AU, I’m going to be looking for a job in the industry. It would be very nice to find something research-related so that I can continue to do physics, but if this is not possible I think it is going to be nice to explore other fields. The good thing about physics is that it keeps all the doors open so I can do jobs involving maths or coding or data handling and mathematical modelling without any trouble. When you think about jobs in the industry most of them will have use for a physicist.
What does being a physicist or engineer mean to you?
I think physics is neat as it builds on top of some very old theory that is still revised and renewed today. This is a very cool process to get to be a part of. Physics today is also a field that continues to help people! Think about environmental physics, atomic reactor physics related to giving us greener energy or medical nuclear physics used to treat cancer or take x-ray images of broken bones. These things would never have been discovered without experimental physicists exploring!
What advice would you give to young people, particularly women and minorities, who are interested in studying physics?
On the subject of gender, going into almost every STEM field there will be a clear dominance of men. In my year we started maybe just over a handful of girls along with about 80 guys. When speaking to younger people (mostly girls), this is a very big concern of theirs. The numbers are of course a very imbalanced field, but it did not take a lot of getting used to. All the people I have met during my studies have been nice people independent of their gender/looks or how they defined themselves. My best advice is to not worry about the people you are going to meet and what they might or might not like/think about you. This physics field is full of very nice open-minded young people who all love science so you will definitely fit in even though it might look very scary and uniform from the outside!
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