Victoria Strutt

Engineer

Having completed my undergraduate degree at Oxford University in the Department of Materials Science, I joined the atom probe research team at Oxford for my Masters project, where I investigated nuclear materials. It was love at first experiment. Atom probe tomography is an incredible technique that allows me to look at how individual atoms are behaving in different materials. The arrangement of atoms in materials can help us understand the properties of materials and it is now on this microscopic scale that we design materials – it is therefore really important that we can study where atoms are and how they behave during operation. For my PhD I am funded by Rolls Royce and study materials used in aeroplane engines, using atom probe tomography to understand how different atoms move around when we put the material under different conditions. My research looks at how we can ensure the materials we use in aeroplanes can handle the conditions needed to make the engines more efficient and ultimately better for the environment.