CLF Meet The Staff

Meet The Staff

When you first start out, you'll be meeting a lot of new faces. Get to know some of them!

British Science Week: Smashing Stereotypes at the CLF
This year's British Science Week is all about #SmashingStereotypes. To celebrate, we spoke to 3 CLF staff members who do just that!
CLF Sandwich Student takes part in I’m a scientist – Live! in Swindon
On Tuesday 19 March, almost 300 secondary school students from five different Swindon schools came to Ridgeway School and Sixth Form College to participate in 'I’m a Scientist – Live!', part of the STFC Bringing Science to Swindon programme.
CLF Scientist and STFC Senior Fellow honoured by the Royal Academy of Engineering
We are delighted to announce that Pavel Matousek, Chief Scientific Officer of Cobalt Light Systems Ltd and STFC Senior Fellow, has been named as one of this year’s 50 people to receive a Royal Academy of Engineering Fellowship
CLF scientist Paul Donaldson has been awarded a UKRI Fellowship: Molecular stopwatch measurements of dynamics in catalysts, battery electrolytes and ionic liquids in situ.
Paul has recently been awarded a UKRI fellowship to aid his efforts in improving the science of catalysts and batteries, in the hopes for creating a greener future in transport.
From Placement to PhD: Following the Story of Alfred Jones
The Sandwich Student Scheme has been running successfully for over 20 years, with the number of students increasing year-by-year to over 50 across STFC in 2018.
From Western Cape to Great Western: South African PhD student Cathrine Pfukwa wins award for experiment with ancient antibiotic here at the CLF
Only 2 years into her PhD, Cathrine has already made huge strides in this exciting, cutting-edge project, which has particular importance in our current climate where more and more bacteria, funguses and viruses are becoming resistant to antibiotics.
International Women’s Day 2021: Meet Kathryn Welsby
Kathryn is a Senior Applications Scientist for Johnson Matthey and the Interim Group Leader of the Industrial Partnership & Innovation Group at STFC.
Meet Marta Szynkiewicz
“I feel very lucky working at RAL, because it’s a truly inspiring place to be,” Marta says, “You can see the ideas being born in front of you."
Meet Naomi Omori
We sat down to talk to Dr Naomi Omori – a CLF PhD student turned Research Scientist at RAL based company, Finden.
Meet the 2018/2019 CLF Sandwich Students
Each year the Central Laser Facility welcomes a number of sandwich students to work as part of various teams across the department. The scheme offers undergraduates the opportunity to take a year out of their degree to gain experience of working life.
Meet the 2021-22 CLF industrial placement students
Every summer, STFC welcomes roughly 70 new placement students to spend a year working at one of their sites across the UK. Four of this year’s students took time out to sit down with and tell me about their placements.
Meet the 2022-23 CLF Placement Students
Every summer we welcome a variety of placement and sandwich students to the CLF to spend a year with us performing research projects, helping in the labs, and assisting in the offices with communications.
Meet the 2023-24 CLF Placement Students
As with every year, this summer has brought in a new cohort of undergrad students from various universities to spend a year working at the Central Laser Facility. I sat down with some of our newest recruits to find out what they were up to in their roles.
Meet the 2024-25 CLF Industrial Placement Students
Every year, STFC recruits industrial placement students from universities all around the UK to take part in the exciting research being undertaken here. Hear from four of them on how their experience here has been thus far.
Member of CALTA team wins AILU prize 2019
We would like to offer a huge congratulations to Mariastefania De Vido for winning a prize from the Association of Industrial Laser Users (AILU).
Putting the T into STFC: Engineering at the Central Laser Facility
In response to the ever-increasing shortage of engineering graduates and technology professionals, the Government has launched a new campaign initiative; declaring 2018 to be the Year of Engineering.
World-class target fabricator creates tiny masterpieces
When working at these tiny, sometimes nanoscale, sizes, very strange problems start to arise.