Profile

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Neil Bowles

Achievement unlocked: Met two Apollo astronauts today!

Curriculum Vitae

  • Work History:

    National Physical Laboratory for 7 years, IT consultant for 1 year then went back to Uni for PhD

  • Current Job:

    University Lecturer, so I teach students and run a small research group

  • Employer:

    Currently work at the University of Oxford, Department of Physics

  • My Work

    University teacher and planetary science engineering

  • My Typical Day: Usually a bit of teaching, some time in the lab running experiments, answering lots of emails….

  • What I'd do with the money

    Hmmm, probably buy a low cost 3D printer so we can build another 3D printer.

  • Read more

    3D printer would be fun to try rapidly making new parts for our space instruments. Imagine if in the future you could print new spacecraft parts on the way to e.g. Mars if something broke.  It would save a lot of mass, and its moving mass into space that takes big rockets so is expensive.

    With the printer, we could get schools to suggest mechanical designs for bits of spacecraft and then test them using our launch simulation shaker and space simulation vacuum chambers….  Oh, and make custom lego bricks.

  • My Interview

    • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Inquisitive, enthusiastic, odd

      What's the best thing you've done in your career?

      Helped to build bits of spacecraft that are currently in orbit around the Moon and Mars

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      Scientist or Engineer

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      Occasionally, but you’d have to ask me about it….

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      A geologist or a musician

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      Hmmm, not sure at the moment. Currently listening to Bastille and the odd bit of Kraftwerk (I’m old)

      What's your favourite food?

      Macaroni cheese

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      Watching something I helped build get launched to the Moon from the Kennedy Space Center

Questions answered by Neil

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