​Rhea did her PhD in St Andrews focussing on magnetism and superconductivity. This is where she got her first taste of doing muon experiments, at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) investigating thin films using low energy muons.

“During my first trip to PSI, I immediately loved the hands-on nature of facility measurements," she explains. “Seeing the instrument scientists, I thought it looked like a cool job, but I was aware of how rare the positions are."

After her PhD, Rhea did a joint post doc at The ETH Zurich and PSI. This was working on nano-magnetism and included working in a clean room and doing laboratory and X-ray measurements as well as some muon experiments.

She saw the instrument scientist job advertised at ISIS, looking for someone with experience in both muon techniques and superconductivity. Although she wasn't sure she fitted all the criteria, she was encouraged to apply and was successful, joining ISIS in 2022.

Super-MuSR has been a dream for the muon group for a long time and, from the start of the Endeavour programme, Rhea has been working on the project. This involves the simulation of the instrument's future performance and working closely with the engineering and technical teams exploring the 'why' behind the constraints to the build.

“This has been great for my development as an instrument scientist. It's been fun to take something from a concept on paper to something buildable, with the technical and engineering teams fighting for every spare millimetre as the space is so tight. Now we're at the stage of getting components delivered and demonstrating that its performance is what we wanted," she explains.

“As a user you see the development of instrumentation, but don't have much appreciation for the people involved in it, and how hard it can be. This instrument is a new concept that doesn't exist anywhere else."

Beyond Endeavour, Rhea is investigating the feasibility of a future ISIS muon beamline that produces intense beams of low energy muons. This has involved working with the ISIS accelerator physics teams, as well as working with international collaborators to simulate such an instrument.

Outside of her work in instrument development, Rhea has been continuing her research into superconductivity – learning the science capabilities of MuSR and building collaborations, whilst also continuing her thin film work with beamtime at PSI.

“Being an instrument scientist is really interesting as you get to see a slice of lots of other people's science," she adds.

Rhea is also a pub quiz fan, on a team with some other ISIS instrument scientists. She's still waiting for a question on muon spin rotators!