ISIS Students

Students

ISIS Neutron and Muon Source offers many opportunities to students: from school work experience placements to PhD Studentships.

School Students

ISIS Neutron and Muon Source offers opportunities for school students through the Science and Technology Faciities Council work experience and apprenticeship schemes.

From placement to publication: all before leaving school
During a two-week placement at ISIS, Europa school student Emilie Revill-Hivet made and characterised a compound: lithium methanesulfonate, leading to the publication of an article in Royal Society Open Science.
School Student Opportunities

Undergraduate Students

We have excellent ongoing schemes for undergraduate students, including summer and sandwich placements.

Based at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source?
Resources for students based at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
New Starter Explainer
A brief guide to people who are new to site and would like to know a bit more about how we fit in to STFC, UKRI and the Harwell Campus.
PhD Studentships
Applications are now open for PhD positions co-funded by the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.
Placement years at ISIS
A paid industrial placement at ISIS will give you the opportunity to be a part of this vibrant scientific community whilst developing many skills benefitting your future career.
STFC Graduate Scheme
STFC recruits over 20 graduates a year into a development programme designed to bridge the gap between academic and professional qualifications.
Summer Student Scheme
The ISIS summer student placement scheme allows undergraduate students studying for a degree to gain experience working in the scientific environment.
University Visits
Tours of the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source are available for higher education groups.
Where can an ISIS industrial placement year take you?
We speak to some previous sandwich students to find out what they're doing now, and how their placement helped them get there.

Postgraduate Students

For students who would like to use ISIS Neutron and Muon Source as part of their PhD, those who are already based at ISIS, and those who are interested in applying for a studentship.

Based at ISIS Neutron and Muon Source?
Resources for students based at the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source
Events and Training Opportunities
ISIS Neutron Muon Source offers a number of different events and training opportunities aimed at PhD and post-doctoral researchers.
ISIS hosts successful student meeting
Last week saw over 60 PhD students come to RAL for the annual ISIS student meeting.
ISIS Student Conferences
Details of meetings run exclusively for students.
New Starter Explainer
A brief guide to people who are new to site and would like to know a bit more about how we fit in to STFC, UKRI and the Harwell Campus.
PhD Studentships
Applications are now open for PhD positions co-funded by the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.
Student Travel Support
ISIS is offering support for UK students visiting other facilities during the ISIS long shutdown
University Visits
Tours of the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source are available for higher education groups.

Case Studies

Learm more about the staff at ISIS by reading some of our profile articles.

Adroja (Devashibhai)
In October 2019, Devashibhai Adroja (known as Adroja) will have been at STFC for 20 years. He was drawn to ISIS by “the fantastic science” and the science programme fits well with his research, which is on strongly correlated electron materials.
Anna Herlihy
From Diamond Sandwich student to ISIS Facility Development Student
Benji Moore: placement year to PhD, with a publication along the way!
During his industrial placement at ISIS, Benji Moore worked on a project that saw him publish a paper as its first author. He is now studying for a PhD and has returned to ISIS to do experiments to support his thesis.
Case Study: Harry Sullivan on completing a graduate placement at CERN
Orla Fernie, Science Communications Placement Student spoke to Harry Sullivan about his experience completing a placement at CERN in 2021 as part of his graduate scheme.
Chris Lawson
Technical manager for ISIS ultra-low temperature (ULT) experiments
Christopher Robinson
Christopher is an Electronics Technician with the Radio Frequency RF Group’s Linac section. After taking his GCSEs, he joined the RAL Apprenticeship Scheme and joined ISIS.
Dan Faircloth
Dan Faircloth has been working in ISIS for over 17 years and hasn’t looked back since, working to develop ISIS’s international reputation for ion source development.
Debbie Greenfield - Pushing Boundaries for 40 years
From the Higgs Boson to the first neutrons in TS2, four decades of change in RAL’s scientific engineering world has spanned the extraordinary career of Debbie Greenfield. Retiring this month, we take a look back at her incredible achievements.
Dr Lamar Moore
Insights into our ISIS Scientific Software Group Leader
Dr Sarah Rogers
Meet Sarah, our soon-to-be Large Scale Structures and Engineering Division Head at ISIS…
End of Year Placement Interviews 2020/21
As we welcome the next batch of placement students, we wanted to get in touch with the 2020/21 cohort and ask them to reflect on their time in ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.
End of Year Placement Interviews 21/22
As we welcome the next batch of placement students, we wanted to get in touch with the 2020/21 cohort and ask them to reflect on their time in ISIS Neutron and Muon Source.
Gemma Morgan
ISIS Health Physics apprentice
Genoveva Burca
We profile Genoveva on her journey through ISIS from PhD to Beamline Scientist.
Graham Appleby
Graham has had a winding career journey to become the ISIS Business Development Manager, ticking most of the major radiation sources across Europe off his globe-trotting list.
Hannah Wakeling - evaluating the environmental impact of ISIS-II
Hannah is a post-doctorate research assistant in particle accelerator sustainability at the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science at the University of Oxford.
Haroon Rafique
New ISIS starter Haroon tells us of his journey from University to CERN and now to ISIS where he works as an Accelerator Physicist.
Harry Nolan
From work experience student to apprentice, and now undergraduate…
Hayley Cavanagh
Beam Physics Operations Section Leader
Helen Popland
Helen Popland has been an engineer at ISIS since September 2020. For an international woman in engineering special, we spoke with Helen to get to know her better and learn about her experiences at ISIS.
International Women's Day: the inspirational Jacqui Cole!
Prof Jacqui Cole is Head of Molecular Engineering at Cambridge, BASF / Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair in Data-driven Molecular Engineering of Functional Materials and a joint appointment at ISIS, but she is not the traditional academic!
Jacob Simms - Continuously improving
Jacob Simms has been a mechanical support technician at ISIS for 10 years!
Jasmine Hind
After finishing her placement year in the deuteration lab in the support laboratories, Jasmine Hind will go straight into a full time role within the facility.
Jonathan Speed
A sneak peek into the life of an accelerator engineer...
Kevin Jones: taking instruments from concept to operation
To start our series introducing the staff behind Endeavour, we speak to Kevin Jones, ISIS Instruments Project Lead and Endeavour programme manager.
Koji Yokoyama
Beamline scientist on the muon instrument EMU
Leo Rozanov
While studying for his A-levels, Leo did a week of work experience at ISIS that confirmed his decision to study physics at university, and strengthened his applications for universities in the United States.
Madi Woollard
Apprentice in the mechanical workshop
Matilda Rhodes
From Industrial Placement to ISIS Facility Development PhD student.
Meet the Cryogenics Team 2021
We sat down and spoke to 5 members of our award-winning Cryogenics team to find out what life is like as a member of the team.
Meet the Detector Group 2022
We sat down with three members of the ISIS Detector Group to find out what life is like as a member of the team.
Meet the Placement Students 2022/23
A talk with our new placement students on their time at ISIS so far...
Meet the Placement Students 2023-24
It’s been a few months since our industrial placement students started their roles. Orla Fernie, Science Communication Placement Student (is placement student-ception a thing?) spoke to some of her colleagues about their roles here.
Meet the Placement Students 2024-25
Each year, ISIS hosts a cohort of industrial placement students, offering a year away from their university studies to gain experience working in a variety of roles. We spoke to 4 students about their placements.
Meet the Sandwich Students 2021
ISIS Neutron and Muon Source would like to welcome our new cohort of Sandwich Students for 2021.The sandwich student scheme offers students the opportunity to spend a year away from their degrees and gain valuable work experience.
Mohamad Kurdi
From placement student to STFC graduate scheme.
Olivia Tindle: being stubborn in the face of adversity
ISIS placement student Olivia has been determined to be a physicist since she was 15, and is now well on her way to getting there, despite struggling at college and being told she should try something else.
Peter Baker Staff Profile
Dr Peter Baker is an Instrument scientist working at the ISIS facility responsible for the MuSR muon instrument.
Ranggi Ramadhan
From ISIS Facility Development Student to Post-doctoral researcher at the ILL
Richard Waite
Richard joined ISIS’ Scientific Computing division after finishing a PhD as part of the ISIS Facility Development Studentship scheme.
Ryan Allinson
Ryan is an Electronics Technician within the Synchrotron Section of the Radio Frequency (RF) Group.
Sara Karbassi and Albin Nilson
New Duty Technicians in the Main Control Room
Sarah Fisher
Diagnostics software section leader
Skip Doran
Cryogenics technician Skip tells us about her work in the helium recovery centre at ISIS.
Tristan Canfer
Tristan tells us about his journey through ISIS from apprentice to full-time staff member.
Where can an ISIS industrial placement year take you?
We speak to some previous sandwich students to find out what they're doing now, and how their placement helped them get there.
Will Halcrow - engineering collaboration with the ESS
To celebrate the UK and the European Spallation Source's collaboration, we talked to Will Halcrow, one of the mastermind engineers behind setting up the LoKI instrument.
Zoë Bowden
After joining ISIS straight from school, Zoë is now Head of ISIS Operations and Deputy Director.
Zoë Clark
Zoë is a mechanical design engineer at ISIS on the Graduate scheme, but her route here was not straightforward, going via research, consultancy, and the powerlifting world championships.