Physics Lecture

Recently, I got the amazing opportunity to go to a lecture on "Gravitational Waves" given by Dr. Laura Nuttall. The lecture covered different aspects of physics, such as general relativity, Newton’s law on universal gravitation, space time, and of course what happens when gravitational waves given off by collisions in space pass through an object. Dr. Nuttall is a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and has been for eight years; during her time there she has worked with Nobel Peace prize winners Rainer Weiss, Kip S Thorne, and Barry Barish. Impressively, LIGO managed to detect gravitational waves (ripples in space time) that were first predicted by Einstein 100 years ago which earned them a Nobel Peace prize in 2017.

Dr. Nuttall dedication the final part of her lecture to her earlier life and how her education led her to the position she is in today. Like the majority of people at secondary school age, Dr. Nuttall didn’t know what she wanted to do after she had completed her GCSEs and A-levels but had luckily taken an interest in Maths and Physics which as a result convinced her to choose a university degree in Physics (specifically Astrophysics and Cosmology) at Lancaster University. After receiving her Masters degree, Dr. Nuttall decided she still hadn’t come to the conclusion of what she wanted to do as a career so continued her time in university and received a PhD focusing on electromagnetic and gravitational waves in 2013. She then transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where her research diversified to characterising the Advanced LIGO detectors but eventually chose to return to Cardiff University in 2017.

As a young woman with a love for Math and Physics and an aspiration to take up a career in engineering, I found that Dr. Nuttall’s words hit very close to home and carried a lot of inspirational value and I am certain that others would agree. The fact that Dr. Nuttall hadn’t made a clear decision on what she wanted to do career-wise until much later on in life yet still went on to do amazing things may bring relief to those who have the same mindset as she did and are also struggling to decide on a career path. Furthermore, despite the fact that she would have undoubtedly had obstacles and a slight disadvantage due to her gender, she overcame them with confidence and a powerful mindset that has put her in the position she is today which is the type of mindset I believe all women should be able to possess no matter the race, religion, sexuality or background.