CDT Student Interviews - Spotlight on Félix Soubelet
Why are you interested in Physics?
"For anyone curious, there's a real satisfaction in learning and developing the theoretical and experimental tools we use to observe and understand the world around us. Physics is the way to do that."
How did you end up in Liverpool?
"My master's thesis work was already on accelerator physics, and led me to realise this was the direction I wanted to take with my PhD, so I started hunting for positions on very specific subjects. The Quasar Group at the University of Liverpool offered a project through the Liv.Dat framework that seemed to be all I felt I wanted to do, so I went for it."
Which contribution to your field do you consider to be the most significant?
"This is very tough to answer, since we're a very wide and multi-disciplinary field. I would pick Rolf Widerøe's proof of concept that particle accelerators could be created."
What do you hope to contribute to your field?
"I'm part of the international HL-LHC project, so just contributing as much as possible to ensure it ends up being a success sounds good! However, applying machine learning and deep learning in accelerator physics is an emerging perspective, and I'd like to contribute to making it an established practice and develop its potential."
Where do you hope to end up after your PhD?
"I would like to stay in accelerator physics research, so I see myself going for a postdoc fellowship."
Why do you think Big Data is important?
"The amazing thing these days is that everything is data. There is so much of it available in any field: societal behaviours, economics studies, scientific research, any interaction between two telecommunication devices, etc. It has become crucial that we learn and develop tools to handle such massive datasets, and it opened the possibility to implement predictive algorithms to make the best out of it."