Start date: 01-10-2013
Academic department: Physics
Title of research project: Thermal properties of quantum matter from holography
Academic supervisor: Professor Jerome Gauntlett
Native country: UK

How has the scholarship award enabled you to pursue your ambitions? 

If I hadn't had access to funding, I wouldn’t have been able to do a PhD. The scholarship allowed me to make an informed choice about my future: whether to pursue academia or to transfer to industry. Either direction requires a PhD, so the scholarship has certainly positioned me well for my future career. It enabled me to travel to a conference in Austria to present my findings, which I wouldn’t otherwise have had the funds to do, and paid for me to attend a summer school. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity I received and would encourage others to fund scholarships if they possibly can. It’s vitally important for as many people as possible to have the opportunity to study science and to contribute their findings to academia and industry.