"Having become interested in nuclear physics I was delighted to be selected to undertake a research year based at the University of Richmond in Virginia. My research project involved testing of a new type of gamma-ray detector. I spent five months at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California completing the experimental work. I was at Yale University for 6 weeks during the summer and returned to Richmond in the autumn to complete the research. Towards the end of the year I presented my work at the American Department of Nuclear Physics conference, presenting alongside physicists at the very top of the field. This was an opportunity to meet and talk with these people and a great ending to my year in America.

This research year also provided me with a great chance to explore a part of the world I had never experienced and to make great friends both personally and in physics circles."