The Erasmus+ scheme provides funding for students to study or get industry experience abroad. At the time of writing, UK institutions are able to accept students for traineeships, although studying abroad in the UK is not covered by the scheme.
“I had worked on muon detectors during my bachelor's studies, and my supervisors knew the team at ISIS. We designed a project together, which we submitted and were awarded funding for," explains Lisa.
During her three-month traineeship, Lisa has been working with Dan Pooley, on a fully assembled stave for Super MuSR, including testing the output of the scintillator tiles and the communication between the stave and the computer.
“It has been very busy!" she says. “But I been able to carry out experiments both in the labs and on the muon beamlines, and it has been interesting to get this unique experience that's not available at a university."
Lisa had done similar calibration work for testing and characterising scintillator photomultiplier detectors (like those being built for Super MuSR) previously. “It has been new to look at the whole process," she adds.
While she has been at ISIS, Lisa has also been able to get involved in other projects. This has included detector testing experiments on the RIKEN muon beamlines, led by her university supervisors, and troubleshooting problems with the detector outputs from the other ISIS muon instruments.
As well as her experiments, Lisa was able to attend the ISIS student meeting, although her data collection has been pretty intense!
“This has been a great way to kickstart my work on my master's thesis. When I go back to university, I will keep in touch with the team, especially Ben, the industrial placement student in the group, and work with them while continuing my master's work," she says. “I have enjoyed my time here and would love to come back for further study or experiments."
“Lisa is an excellent scientist who has contributed to the development of Super MuSR and two other experiments on the RIKEN beamline," adds Dan.
