SJ (Class of 2014, Beale) received a bursary for the Sixth Form in 2012. They chose to study the International Baccalaureate (IB) because of the breadth of curriculum that the IB provided.
They immersed themselves in College life, becoming a talented debater and public speaker, and volunteering with the Community Links programme, which supports the work of charitable causes in our local community. SJ is now undertaking a PhD at The University of Warwick, studying laser-plasma interactions relevant to fusion power.
"My time at College provided me with a belief that, with hard work and in collaboration with others, I am able to understand and master complex ideas, and to apply them to the state of the world around me.
By studying the International Baccalaureate, I was able to get the training I needed to pursue an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, while also fostering my interest in Philosophy and Religion, German Literature and Language, French, and English Literature. All of these subjects have carried forward with me into my career as a computational physicist and to my understanding of myself as a bisexual, non-binary person.
I now work on laser-plasma interactions relevant to building a nuclear fusion energy source. Such a fusion reactor would provide large amounts of carbon-free energy, with very small amounts of nuclear waste compared to those currently in use. As part of my research I have presented at conferences in Japan and the United States, two countries which I never thought I would visit in my lifetime. In the winter quarter of 2020 I was employed as Junior Specialist at the University of California, San Diego, where I visited a desert and went skiing and tried to surf, all for the first time."
November 2020
