Profile
Rebecca Dewey
Morning all!! :)
My CV
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Education:
Piggott CE School, Reading (1997-2004), University of Manchester (2004-2008), University of Nottingham (2008-2011)
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Qualifications:
An undergraduate Masters degree in Physics with Theoretical Physics (MPhys), a doctorate in improving MRI scanning techniques (PhD), and a chartered physicist to say that I have reached a certain level in physics and I’ve promised to keep up to date with new developments (CPhys)
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Work History:
I’ve worked on various projects at the University of Nottingham since 2012, in the School of Medicine (2012-2016) and the School of Physics and Astronomy (2016 onwards)
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Current Job:
Research Fellow
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About Me:
I studied physics and now work as a scientist at a university looking at pictures of brains.
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I live with my partner in Nottingham. We own a little semi-detached house in the city centre so we can easily walk to the train station and into town to do the shopping or go out in the evenings. My partner’s Mum lives in Oakham which is only 45 minutes’ drive away so we try to go there often to see her and her dog, Cocoa (the dog in my profile picture).
I sing in a choir in Nottingham of about 16 women. I think we’re quite good, but we’re trying to become really really good. We do concerts all over the UK, and we do a tour of Italy every few years – our director is Italian so she has lots of connections! Singing takes up quite a lot of my spare time, especially near to a competition or concert, so at these times I don’t have time for a lot else.
Once a week I volunteer at a social club for people with learning disabilities. We play party games or quiz games, and do karaoke or have a disco. I really enjoy spending time with the people there so I try to go every week.
In the rest of my spare time, I like to go trampolining and I like to play an augmented reality game called Ingress on my phone (which means I have to walk around a lot). I don’t get a lot of time to exercise and I get bored of it quite easily, so trampolining and walking are about all I can be bothered to do to keep fit!
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My Work:
I take pictures of peoples’ brains to find out how they work!
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I studied physics at university, and then during my PhD I specialised in using my physics knowledge to improve brain imaging. Now I work for a university, doing research using brain imaging to answer questions about medicine and health. Some professors at a university will think of some interesting questions they want answered, and then find a company or charity that is willing to give them the money to do the research. Then they hire someone (like me!) to do that research for them. These jobs can last as little as a few months or as long as years. I’ve been really lucky and had two 3-year jobs, so I don’t need to look for new work too often.
The work I’m doing in my current job is to understand more about ow hearing problems affect the brain, and what we can tell about the cause and severity of someone’s hearing problem by looking at an MRI scan of their brain. Some people have problems hearing, but when they go to a hearing specialist (known as an audiologist), they can’t find anything wrong. We call this “hidden hearing loss”. Hidden hearing loss is a problem that affects quite a few people, and we think it might be linked to noise exposure (going to loud concerts and listening to loud music on headphones). I am going to use MRI scanning to see if we can detect any differences between people with hidden hearing loss and people with normal hearing.
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My Typical Day:
I work with computers and MRI scanners – I meet people, take an MRI scan of their brain, and then look at the images.
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I don’t really have a typical day. I spend time meeting people, sometimes deaf people, sometimes I need to use a British Sign Language interpreter to speak to them. Then I will ask them to lie down in the MRI scanner so that I can take pictures of their brain. Then I look through the data and use computers and maths to understand what is going on in their brain. Some days I work with computers all day to look at pictures of brains. When I have a large enough amount of pictures then I can compare across different people and if I find something interesting then I will write a report about it and send it to other scientists.
I have to do quite a lot of reading, too – like reading the reports that other scientists have written about their work. I usually do this on the computer to save doing lots of printing! But sometimes, like if I have to write what I think of someone else’s work and send it back to the publisher, then I like to print the report and curl up in a comfy chair while I read it and make my notes.
I also really enjoy doing outreach and public engagement – like this! Sometimes, this means that I go into schools or to public events to talk about my work.
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
Want more knowledge!
What did you want to be after you left school?
A scientist!
What don't you like about your current job?
I have to think a lot about the best way to do something – there is usually not a right or wrong answer. If I choose an inefficient way of doing something, it can take much longer!
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