• Question: What is the best thing you built when you where young?

    Asked by anon-314215 to Alex H on 14 Mar 2022.
    • Photo: Alex Headspith

      Alex Headspith answered on 14 Mar 2022:

      At 21 I’d like to think I am still fairly young 😂

      I’d say the best thing I’ve built was a ion detection chamber which was used in research to help scientists understand the early universe and the birth of stars! This was a difficult project as it was a large system that required a vacuum purer than space! This took months to achieve but it was a great feeling when we managed to build it. As lead technician (I was 19 at the time) it was a big responsibility for me.

      There is a picture of it in my scientist profile, the one with the two red boxes on a large cylindrical shaped stainless steel chamber. I think it shows up first on my profile. Its called CARME if you are interested to look at it.

      My favourite experience of all time was working at CERN though. That was the same year as this other project – 2019 was definitely a good year for me! Its hard to choose as all the projects I work on are different and exciting! Currently I’m working on a one off tuneable permanent magnet for accelerators and building our own in house accelerator called CLARA.

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