Question: how has working with young people helped you?

Rhys Archer answered on 17 Jun 2015:

I love working with young people, I find it very rewarding. It’s really useful whilst I do my PhD, as with my work I sometimes work in really precise detail, about very specific part of the work I do, whereas when I speak to young people, I have to be able to speak more broadly about my work. That’s relly useful as when I present my work to other scientists and engineers, they are not all material engineers, so I need to be able to explain those broad aspects of my work as well as the small detail aspects. I also really value the perspective I get from working with young people. I once went into a school and met a boy in year 8, I introduced myself and said I worked with carbon fibre material, and he got excited and said that was his favourite material and went on to tell me all about it and how its made and where its used! That was really fantastic, and made me remember how lucky I am that I get to work in such an exciting area and do my own research!