Joseph Neilson
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About
I am a physicist, working as a technical lead designing, configuring, testing, and operating radiation detection and measurement equipment.
My work helps to ensure nuclear technologies are used safely; helps to reduce the cost of dealing with radioactive waste thus improving our ability to use nuclear power as a low-carbon power source to tackle climate change; and supports other uses of nuclear technology such as in medicine.
Some of my work also contributes to research in fusion energy, which will one day be a much-needed source of clean energy to power humanity for generations to come.
Joseph’s Career Stories
In layperson terms, what do you actually do at work?
I use radiation detectors to measure many different kinds of radiation and radioactivity. I'm involved in lots of different projects - sometimes I'm measuring radioactive waste to find what radioactive things are inside and therefore how it can be safely disposed. Sometimes I'm measuring radiation from nuclear fusion experiments to better understand fusion science and eventually help lead to a design for a fusion energy powerplant. I work in a number of different places around a nuclear site - sometimes just behind a computer doing data analysis and writing reports; but other times making practical measurements - sometimes sitting in a warehouse beside a detector system measuring drums, sometimes in a laboratory measuring small items, sometimes even clambering over a fusion reactor to make measurements!
When you were a student, did you do anything outside of school to build skills or get knowledge that has helped your career?
I did lots of different extracurricular things that have all helped in different ways, although to pull out a single example, learning a bit of GNU/Linux, programming, and electronics while messing around with making hobby projects with kit like a Raspberry Pi was fun extracurricular self-study, and also really quite helpful - I've quite often found myself drawing on technical skills I first learned back then, although I've since refined many of those skills with more recent formal education and training.
How did you start building your network?
I'm pretty far out on the introversion scale, so networking is not something that comes naturally to me. I've just never really set out specifically to build a network, which probably put me at a significant disadvantage in my early career. I have however grown a network over time, and at times having different people to call on has been really helpful. Although I didn't specifically set out to grow a network, there's a few things I've done which have been notably beneficial. Initially, my network simply grew from interactions with colleagues and customers. People often move around different jobs within the same industry, so as long as you keep in touch or at least add people to a social network system (LinkedIn is generally the go-to for professional connections); a few years on, you've got contacts all over the place. A lot of my most beneficial network contacts have been made as a result of volunteering to represent my organisation at an industry working group, and a few others from various meetings and conferences - these sort of places are great for meeting experts doing really similar work to you, so in your early career I'd recommend volunteering for any opportunities you get to attend meetings outside of your organisation. Another good way of meeting people has been joining relevant professional bodies - I'm a member of a couple of different professional institutes relevant to my career, and these often run outside of work events that are great for meeting people doing various different things around your industry. Volunteering as part of the organising committee for these has also been valuable for networking too.