Fostering the next generation of nuclear scientists
Our partners 25 November 2016
Each year we hold our Dalton Day Symposium to give young researchers within the remit of the Dalton Nuclear Institute and supported by our industrial partners the opportunity to showcase their research to those partners, academic colleagues and interested students. It is an opportunity for all to catch up on the excellent research being done at The University of Manchester, but also a chance to network, to make new contacts and to strengthen existing ones.
As Scientific Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute and Professor of Chemistry at The University of Manchester, I am what you would call a senior scientist and, at this point in my career, progress and progression involves nurturing the next generation. The thing I enjoy most about my job is actively working with young people and watching them grow in capability and confidence as they move towards becoming themselves truly experts in their own right. Dalton Day supports that process, being a celebration of our young researchers. We are very proud of them; their presentations were once again excellent. They certainly can take pride in their achievements and look forward to a promising future.
Dalton Nuclear Institute continues to take significant strides in The University of Manchester’s journey for ensuring world-class research, providing an outstanding learning and student experience and making a positive difference to society. Within our nuclear remit, the University can surely boast state-of-the-art infrastructure and internationally recognised leaders in our associated centres, such as the Dalton Cumbrian Facility, the Centre for Radiochemistry Research, the Materials Performance Centre, to name a selected few. This excellence drives world-class research, is quality assurance for the learning experience of our students and is a contributing motivator for our collaboration with industrial partners. To ensure that the research delivered by our bespoke facilities has its highest impact and relevance, we actively interface to industry, government and academia at various levels and by various means; the Dalton Day symposium showcases some of that interaction and demonstrates their benefits.
For me, a clear highlight of Dalton Day this year was the panel discussion on careers in nuclear technologies with Fiona Rayment (Director of Fuel Cycle Solutions, National Nuclear Laboratory), Fiona Jackson (Head of Strategic Resourcing, EDF Energy) and Sarah Heath (Director of Education, Dalton Nuclear Institute). Nuclear research and development is a multi-facetted endeavour and nuclear-related career paths span not only a broad section of so-called STEM careers, they also include an interesting niche for lawyers, communications persons, administrative personnel and many more. The panel provided an excellent combination of views from a national lab, industry and academic perspective. My hopes are that the young people found it as inspiring as I did.