June 29, 2017, by Philip Moriarty

Building on a solid foundation

The video below is a fantastic insight into the tenacious mindset that’s required to be a physicist. For anyone interested in studying physics (at any level), it’s a must-see. It was uploaded a few days ago by Hannah Coleman, who has recently (very) successfully completed a Foundation Year here at Nottingham and will be joining our Physics degree course in September.

Here’s how Hannah describes herself in the information under the video:

I’m Hannah, a 29 year old student studying on the Foundation Engineering and Physical Sciences degree at the University of Nottingham.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to retrain as a physicist. Even while I was doing my first degree in 2008, it was something I had started thinking about more and more. Last September, I decided to throw caution to the wind in order to follow my passion.

Before I took the first step, I spent many years trying to find stories of people who had made similar changes, but there wasn’t all that much to go on. I had so many questions that I couldn’t find answers to, so I decided that when I began studying I would make videos to try and answer some of those questions. So that’s what I’m doing! Oh and it can’t hurt to brush up on my speaking and presenting skills while I’m at it.

Hannah has been making videos throughout her Foundation Year. I thoroughly and enthusiastically recommend you watch the entire series but, for now, I’ll leave you with another of my favourite videos in the playlist. (I guess I should admit that this one was mostly filmed in the Nanoscience Group labs so particularly resonates with me…).

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