Donal Hill

Particle physicist

In primary school I really liked the parts of science class that dealt with the planets, objects melting and freezing, and how things moved, behaved and interacted with their surroundings. It was only later in secondary school that I realised that “physics” was the name given to all of these different parts of science that I enjoyed the most, and from then on I was hooked. I went on to study physics at Queen’s University in Belfast as an undergrad, and during my time there I was granted a place on the CERN summer student programme.

Having been immersed in the unique atmosphere at CERN during the summer of 2010, I decided to apply for PhDs in particle physics as soon as I got home. Very happily I was granted a graduate student position in the Oxford LHCb group, and was awarded my PhD in 2015 for my work on a phenomenon known as CP violation. I am now working in the same group as a postdoctoral researcher, and spend my time trying to understand the curious properties of antimatter by looking very closely at particles containing bottom quarks, the very heavy cousins of the down quarks found inside protons and neutrons.