Background

I grew up near Birmingham and then did my A levels in Gloucestershire which is where I fell in love with science early on. Both my parents are scientists and my grandpa as well, but it was during my A Levels that I began to properly love science. So I did all three sciences and maths at A level and I really liked how they all connected with each other. I originally applied for medicine at Uni but realised I didn’t actually want to be a doctor although I found the science of medicine really interesting. I ended up doing Physics as my undergraduate degree. I originally wanted to go into quantum biology after my degree but when I was completing my final year of my integrated masters I one of the options I applied for was a PhD in Magnetics having done my Master’s project on micro-magnetics and I got a PhD placement with no funding and so they recommended PIADS (Photonic Integration and Data Storage) the first year of which is a taught year and through that I found things that I really loved and I fell in love with Photonics which is how I ended up where I am now.

That’s a really interesting journey of discovery, through that what is it that has attracted you to Photonics specifically?

One of the things that I like about science in general is just how layered it is. So you can go through different explanations of things depending on level and area of interest and I think that “light” in general and by extension the area of photonics is one of those things that is so interesting because there are so many levels to how you can explain it to people.

I established, early on in my degree, that astrophysics was not for me. I had a very funny meeting with my advisor of studies when I was picking my selected courses – I asked, “can I come out with a well-rounded degree without having to take any more astro courses?” I loved solid-state physics as well which ties into photonics because you get to learn all about the energies of things so now my research project is combining the solid-state physics and the electronics and the photonics all in one. I find it really interesting and fun. For my research project itself, instead of picking the topic (because I prefer the process and I don’t have a favourite bit of photonics) we selected my research based on the journey that I would go through. So rather than focussing on a specific topic the research is a journey to take me as far as I can get it which will be an interesting process, I find it much easier to help me relate back to things if I have a starting point and an end goal. So it is all about the process rather than being set specific tasks and having to work through those. I started my research at the end of July 2023 so I am fairly early on in the process and have had to teach myself as I found a few gaps in my knowledge and education. I am starting now to develop some preliminary results and I still need to test them, but I am able to start to put some graphs together to describe why the topic is interesting.

Are there any organisations or elements of the Photonics industry that are really exciting you?

I am a huge fan of Vector Photonics and what they are doing, innovating lasers is really cool. It’s also exciting to see the progression from a PhD project to a successful start-up company and is a great example of where a research led career can take you. Also attending the Technology Scotland Annual dinner allowed me to hear about the innovation being driven by Scottish companies which was a very exciting opportunity. In general, where I am looking career wise, I have discovered that I really love scientific outreach so I have a couple of part time jobs that are both scientific outreached based and I really enjoy it and I find that even if I’m getting a bit bogged down and not enjoying or liking science so much it is great to uplift me. One of the things the role entails is going and teaching science to kids as part of parties or assemblies, so you get to see how exciting it is for them. One of the things I always try to do is include teaching them about light. I am a bit biased as I think light is amazing but they normally come out thinking light is amazing as well. Generally, there’s a few different industries that I think do very well at communicating what they do to the general public and I just find that really great.

What can the industry do to engage future employees?

Getting them young is quite important. There have been a few times that I have gone to parties or schools and sometimes it’s the parents who will say that my younger child who the party is for is really into science but my older child thinks that science is for guys. I am keen to stress that science is not just for guys it is for everyone. It is lovely to be that introduction and reinforcement that science is for everyone! A lot of people, when they decide to be scientists, decide quite young that science is for them and you generally then have to do science through most of your academic career to get into it as an industry. So going into schools and keeping a good public engagement is important. Things like Glasgow science festivals and other science events are really good opportunities to go and explain what you do as a company and inspire people to join your industry.

I have met Katherine on a couple of occasions and her engaging openness, determination and resilience has impressed me each time. What stands out is that this invested scientist channels her enthusiasm to drive her forward no matter what. Her passion for science and interest in photonics and light especially is infectious and her energy to share through outreach programmes does her great credit.

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