Hi! I am currently a 5th year Physics Student at the University of Edinburgh, pursuing an Integrated Masters undergraudate programme. As can be seen from my research, I am interested mainly in condensed matter physics, both of the soft and hard variety! My specific subject interests include statistical physics, quantum solids, fluid mechanics, and as of recent, the physics of DNA. Currently, I study the effects of a finite tumbling mechanism in bacteria and also I'm trying to understand the nature of transcription bursts in DNA.
Words cannot express the gratitude that I have for my supervisors: Chris Stock, Alexander Morozov and Davide Marenduzzo who have helped me cultivate experience in these fields! Of course, my friends who I have discussions with on a daily basis remain as valuable a resource as any other.
However, I'd like to think I am more than my Google Scholar page. I’ve been really lucky to have the opportunities I’ve had, thanks in large part to my family. My parents and my sister have always encouraged my curiosity and supported me — both emotionally and financially — and I’m incredibly grateful for the way they’ve fostered my interests and given me the freedom to pursue what I love. Outside of physics, I’ve always loved playing cricket, attempting to get better at chess, solving various Rubik’s cubes, swimming at the beach, and writing. Lately, though, those hobbies have taken a bit of a back seat as I’ve become more caught up in physics. These days, I find myself talking more about things like fusion energy or the crisis in cosmology.
I know I’ve been fortunate. I’ve had chances that many people, despite working just as hard, haven’t been given. A world full of poverty, inequality, war, and discrimination has stripped away freedoms and opportunities from others, priviledges that I’ve been lucky to enjoy. Hence, I believe it’s my responsibility to make the most of what I’ve been given. Sometimes I think of how John Keats wrote that philosophy — and, by extension, science — can “unweave a rainbow,” taking some of the magic and mystery out of the world. But it follows that science removes mystery only to reveal deeper and more beautiful truths. For me, science is about using that knowledge to better understand both nature and society, and to help improve life for as many people as possible.
Whatever path I follow, I hope that in my own small way, I can contribute to the changes needed so that, as a society, we might move beyond the confines of mundane necessity and step into the realm of real freedom, where everyone can explore what they love and discover who they truly want to be, no matter the circumstances of their birth. To recall the quote by Aimé Césaire which the Trinidadian author C.L.R. James was fond of: "...there is a place for everyone at the rendezvous of victory"