Field trips

This morning I was treated with one of the best lectures of the forum – Stacy Williams speaking on “Being a Scientist in the Financial Markets”: After starting his education as a physicist, Williams was swept into the mammon sector and soon became respected as a mathematical modelling expert. The nice thing about his presentation … Read more

As you know, I am writing this blog in retrospect and am desperately trying to catch up. This follows directly from LIYSF being so packed with tours, learning, activities, and socializing! Nonetheless, I will never forget this day of LIYSF because it marks my first and possibly last time tour of a Nuclear Fusion facility … Read more

We had a full day of lectures ahead today so I inhaled breakfast and went to hear about applications of graphene. The one-atom-thick sheet of carbon is renowned for it’s remarkable electrical and structural properties. In fact, in 2010 alone, graphene was the subject of 3000 papers and 400 patents! Del Stark showed us the smorgasbord … Read more

We were off to Warwick University early after breakfast:   It was to be another two-hour journey to the university and nearly everyone in the bus fell asleep. The English countryside was just as beautiful as on the Stonehenge tip but not quite so special now: The University of Warwick reminded me of TASC II … Read more

Mindful of all the world’s starving children I took great pains to communicate my desire for less food to the servers at breakfast. Although they are no doubt used to cleaning up dishes half-full of eggs and sausage afterward, they hesitantly agreed to this foreign request. After the regular morning socializing we migrated towards the … Read more

After breakfast we boarded the buses bound for Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral day tours. What they didn’t tell me when I paid the £40 ($70) for the tour is that Stonehenge is a good 2hr drive from Imperial College! However, part of the reason I wanted this trip was to experience the renowned English countryside outside … Read more

Again, I am writing this post two days late but the pictures will guide me! I will try to get in a more regular pattern of blogging because it’s not as easy remembering with so much going on. Anyways, here’s a nice shot of Queen’s tower which welcomed us to the breakfast hall early Saturday … Read more

Okay, so I ran out of time last night to review day 3 of LIYSF 2014 and I’ve found one of the great challenges of this forum is to find time for everything! I will try to keep it compact… It was an early morning because I had a tour to the National Physical Laboratory … Read more

Wow, it’s hard settling down to write this post after so much learning, networking, and experiencing the second day of LIYSF! We started off with one of those everything-looks-so-good-you-scoop-in-too-much-and-can’t-hope-to-finish breakfasts where I sat with two Irish lasses, one Texan, and a fine young man from Israel – what a combination! The Opening Ceremony was approaching … Read more

The 9hr flight to London, UK was highly entertaining for one who doesn’t travel all that often… Bye bye Vancouver… here I come UK! As the outside temperature drops to -45C, any water left between window panes freezes forming some beautiful crystals. The reason CO2 in the atmosphere doesn’t instantly form dry ice hail is not … Read more