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I word at Diamond Light Source, a synchrotron, which is a type of particle accelerator. I have worked there since before it was built and have been involved in designing and building the RF plant – the engine room of the machine – and now work to help keep it running smoothly.

The machine itself has loads of different types of laboratory built around it. Scientists can book time to use the labs for all sorts of work, from x-ray crystallography to protein diffraction, watching how viruses work and helping to design nano-robotics…all sorts! Far more than I can remember, or understand.

When I get in to work, I generally spend a while – maybe an hour or so – checking over emails and seeing what the day has in store. I usually drink coffee at the same time, because coffee is my friend.

After that, either I will get on with some of the on-going jobs that I look after; maintaining and building RF devices for the lab, or helping to catalogue data about how the machine runs.

As often as not, however, there will be some new work that needs doing right away and I rarely know what it’s going to be before I get in in the morning! Most things I have to solve present a new chance to learn something – and I do love learning things.

I think a lot of people imagine that engineering and science are terribly difficult and boring, that they don’t have much to do with everyday life. I just don’t think that’s true!

All it takes is a little effort to be able to take part in building robots, or investigating time travel, or curing the common cold…using many of the same basic skills that you use to build Lego, play Civilization, or work out how much change you get if you buy three bags of crisps with £5.

Engineering and science aren’t boring or scary – they’re the way the future becomes real and they’re SO important. I can’t think of anything better than helping people get as excited about those things as I am!