Bitesize Episode: Dr Jessica Boland - Senior Lecturer of Functional Materials and Devices

In this bitesize podcast episode, the our student interviewers Tamina and Ellie are going to introduce you to Dr Jessica Boland, a Senior Lecturer of Functional Materials and Devices. If you'd like to find out more about Jessie's work keep an eye out for the extended interview which will be released in a couple of weeks.

Some resources that Jessie recommends are:
Laser Maze Puzzle Game
Scottish Sensory Centre (SSC) website
BSL Glossary of Curriculum Terms App - download here

If you know a group of students who would like to interview female or non-binary role models, please get in touch by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

Likewise, if you know anyone who would be a great role model, let us know by emailing podcast@untappedinnovation.com

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Transcript

Izzy  00:00

Hi, I'm Izzy host of the STEM Untapped podcast. This week our student interviewers Tamina and Ellie are interviewing Dr. Jessica Boland. Jessie is a Senior Lecturer of Functional Materials and Devices at the University of Manchester. She is hard of hearing or “little d” deaf and uses lip reading, hearing aids and British Sign Language.

Dr Jessica Boland  00:26

I'm Dr. Jessica Boland, and I'm from the University of Manchester. I'm a Senior Lecturer researching nanomaterials and devices in the electrical engineering department. But I am a secret physicist.

Tamina  00:41

I am Tamina, we chose you because we're very interested in physics. And next year we're doing A levels and I am going to do physics.

Ellie  00:52

Hi I’m Ellie. I'm also in year 11, as well, we chose you because in our class, I'd say it's quite even with like boys and girls and stuff. But it's good to see the differences and like the diversity, and I just want to know, like, what's it like for you in the diversity in your classes and stuff?

Dr Jessica Boland  01:11

That's great. I'm so delighted that you chose me. Yeah, it's really nice to meet you both. And also, it's great to hear that you're both interested in physics. So yeah, yes, physics is great, you won't be disappointed, you'll never get bored. But I think it's a good point that you raised about diversity. It was actually I did my physics A Level in an all girls school, originally. So while I would say that we did do a lot of physics, I didn't see that shock of kind of diversity until I went to university. So in my A levels, it was all of us girls, we all enjoyed it. I think that there was two others that absolutely loved physics for physics on its own, and knew we were going to do a physics degree. So when I went to undergrad, it was a little bit different. It was like five of us girls in a group of about 80. So that was very different. And then when I when I did my PhD, which is what gives you a doctorate, there wasn't too many girls there either. But what I would say is, we were all extremely supportive of each other. So the five girls within my course, we were always kind of chatting helping each other as well. And I had a really good friendship group around me.

Ellie  02:39

What does your day to day life look like? Do you wake up early in the morning? Or do you lie in? Cos lying in is my favourite.

Dr Jessica Boland  02:44

I hate to tell you, unfortunately, I wake up too early, too early. So this morning, I was like out the door at half, six in the morning, right? Don't worry. That's not what being a scientist is. I promise you can lie in. The reason for that is because I've got an hour commute to get into work because I live in Chester and I work in Manchester. So my partner he is an engineer as well. So he he works in in Wales, he’s designing scopes for the military rifle scopes the military, which is pretty cool in itself. Yeah, exactly. And I obviously work at the University of Manchester. So I've got a little bit of a commute to do because we live halfway in between. So that's the only reason I wake up early. During my PhD, you could have like come in at 10am if you wanted to, which is a pretty sweet deal. I'm not gonna lie. Most of us academics while we teach, and most of our teachings in nine to five, the hours that we work are quite flexible. Some of us choose to get up early and finish at like 3pm have a little bit of jolly then some people like to work in a lab in an evening because it's quieter. Myself though, I start quite early, usually in at eight o'clock. And my typical day starts with admin. So I will do some emails, check that my group is okay. Sort that out, then it kind of go around my group and chat to them about the science that they are doing. So I used to be in the lab full time myself. Now I'm more of a supervisor. So my students are in the lab. Most of the time they do a lot of the work. They are amazing people. They are kind of the brains really behind the operation. So I speak to them. I ask them questions, give them tips on their research, etc. Check that they're all doing okay. Then I might actually go give a lecture. That could be two hours. So I teach to 300 undergraduates in a massive lecture theatre, a lot of fun, not as scary as it's sounds and then I might come back into the lab myself. And I do a lot of aligning of my lasers. So I've got to put my laser safety goggles on, get my hands get gloves on, get my hands dirty, and I'm using a lot of mirrors to direct my lasers onto my material. And then the other part of what I might do in a day is tell people about those results. So that’s people that pay me, so people that pay for all the lovely expensive equipment that I have. I tell them what I've done that I've got nice results as well. But it's also telling the rest of the science community, though I might be writing papers to tell them about the results, similar to a report you might write in school. So when you do your practical lab experiments, and you have to write up your results, sometime I spend a kind of in my office writing results in a similar way so that we can then work out what to do next. Yeah, that's kind of a typical day, I'm sorry that it starts at 6am. To me, I'm sorry, Ellie, I'm sorry.

Tamina  05:53

Did you find it harder to learn physics because of your disability?

Dr Jessica Boland  05:57

My disability is a hearing impairment. Or you could say that I am deaf with a little d. That means that I have quite a significant hearing loss. But when I was growing up, I didn't use sign language as a first language. Now I've started to learn sign language, and I use it an awful lot more. But when I was studying for my physics degree, I didn't have that sign language capability, I was relying on lip reading a lot. And actually, everybody lip reads they just don't know it. So we all do this, but because I've had to do it for much longer and tune into it as a main means of my communication, I would say that I probably do it better than the average person. That's what I've basically relied on for my degree. I didn't realise I was deaf for several years. Bizarre, right? I had no idea what other people can hear. So me I was like, this is a normal level of hearing. Everybody can't hear trees whistling, everybody can't hear birds, everybody struggles with speech. So for me, I didn't realise for a long time, especially as a child that had this problem. But I would say that I had mechanisms for coping that allowed me to do well kind of at school so things like sitting at the front, knowing that I needed to see people to lip read my teachers were aware so they would make sure that I got instructions really, really helped. I would say that I probably got tired more during my degree because you're focusing so much and concentrating, you’re lip reading a lot, your brain’s trying to compute what your lip reading and compute the information that's going in. So that was very difficult. In the first year. I didn't have a note taker so that was my main means of communication and I did get quite tired. In second year though, I got a lot more support. I had a notetaker that was great because also everybody else in the class wanted the notes. So it's great for making friends. So, especially around revision time that you just be like, Ah, look, everyone, I've got some notes that I'll happily share with you for some chocolate. So that worked quite well, there was perks for that, but I had note takers, I had radio aids, you may have seen them in the theatre, you wear hearing aids on your ears, you give a device to someone else, and it's like a microphone. So I had that. And then it got a lot easier in terms of studying it undergrad. What I will say is that my disability didn't affect my ability to study physics, as in physics is still physics, it's still the same physics. So in terms of the problems that were hard in physics was still hard for me and everybody else who could hear as well. And my ability to do experiments was exactly the same as everybody else. All I needed was that access to make it difficult. And that's kind of one of the things that most people who have a disability, you'd find will say to you that we don't feel disabled, because we can still do what everybody else can do. We just need adjustments to help us do it. So that's what I would kind of say about learning, that once I had the adjustments, it was exactly the same as everybody else. But without the adjustments, it was a little bit harder.

Ellie  09:28

We find your job amazing. We think that's great. And was there anyone that was sort of a major part of you getting you there? Or was there any sort of major inspiration that got you to where you are today?

Dr Jessica Boland  09:39

I think there's been a lot of people along my path to getting this job. Usually people go, Oh, Marie Curie has always been my role model and things like that. Right? I would have said that, that it's the people around me, people that I wouldn't have expected that has been a lot of kind of inspiration, and support. My parents were great inspiration. Neither of them are scientists. My mom's a schoolteacher. And my dad works as a kind of business manager. But my dad was really, really technical. And my mum as well, kind of just around the house and curious and experiments. So I'd say that that was quite inspiring for me. And their work ethic was inspiring, and I wouldn't have got where I am today if hey hadn't supported me along the way. My maths teacher is the reason I chose physics. Mine was great. And she was like, I was enjoying maths, and I was like, I think I didn't know what I wanted to do, by the way at A level. So don't panic, if it takes a while to work out exactly what you want to do at uni. I went between Latin, to German to French to maths. And then the maths teacher was like you love problem solving. If you do a maths degree, you will get bored. So you need to have a real life application, go and do physics. And it was the best advice she's given. She hated physics by the way. She did a maths and physics degree. She loved maths hated physics. But I think that's why she was particularly inspirational, because she could see the bit she didn't like about physics, I would really enjoy. And it was that real world application. And she said you'd never get bored and I haven't got bored. So definitely, like kudos to her. She was right. And she was quite an inspiration. And then during undergrad, quite a few different lecturers who supported me, the one who I did my research project with who's called Professor Sambols. He was president of the Institute of Physics at one point, he was super cool man. And but he gave me kind of a love for research. And then my PhD supervisor, who's Professor Michael Johnston at Oxford, he really influential because when you do a PhD, basically spend three or four years of your life with that one person who's directing your research. And they kind of say that they become like research parents. It's so true. If he listens to this, this will be a very embarrassing, but it is true. He was like a father figure in kind of research. So those PhD supervisors become quite inspirational and influential. So you might not have that one poster person, if that makes sense. But there's lots of small, local people who are really inspirational. And that's been those role models for me.

Tamina  12:31

Do you have any advice for like teenagers getting into physics? 

Dr Jessica Boland  12:35

Just enjoy it and explore as much as you can. Because when you kind of going, it's a great degree to study, it's really, really interesting. And I would say that kind of enjoy the topics, kind of enjoy them and pursue those. So if you want to get into research or academia, you need a very focused topic that you're going to enjoy for most of your life. Try as much when you're doing your degree to find that kind of topic you like, and just explore it. And being a scientist is all about asking why. So feel free to do that in all aspects of your life. Be curious, would be my advice. Be curious and keep doing it while it's fun would be kind of what I would say.

Izzy  13:19

Thank you for joining another STEM Untapped podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, then subscribe for free on your podcast app. You can follow us on Instagram @STEMuntapped. If you know of a school or group of students who would like to interview female or non-binary role models do get in touch. Likewise, if you know of anyone who would be a great role model then let us know. Our details are all documented in the show notes.