Schools/College Work Experience

Diamond Light Source's annual schools Work Experience programme offers a number of placements to school/college students in Years 10-13 (ages 14-18). The 2024 placements will take place from Monday 8th - Friday 12th July 2024.

Applications for 2024 are now CLOSED. A full list of projects can be found at the bottom of this webpage.

Schools Work Experience at Diamond Light Source...

This video was made by students from Trinity Academy, Brixton as part of their 2022 work experience project

Diamond's work experience programme gives students the chance to come and work at one of the UK’s leading science facilities for a week. Initially students will receive a day's introduction to Diamond and a look around the facility to see first hand how it operates. The main element of the week will be a three day project in a specific area, which students will complete and then present to their peers and other visitors on the final day (friends and family welcome). There will also be a chance to get involved in group activities and time to meet their peers and Diamond staff.

Applicants need to apply for specific projects, see below for the available projects and details of the application process.

The placements are open to students in years 10-13 (typically 14-18 years old), although one of the placement objectives is to give guidance towards further careers or study, so students who have secured a higher education place are less likely to be offered a Work Experience placement (usually year 13 students).

Please be aware students will be expected to work a full day (9am-5pm) and it is their responsibility to make any travel/accommodation arrangements (if accommodation is required we can offer suggestions).

Students may apply for up to 5 of the different projects described below as they wish. When you have reviewed the projects please click "start your application" at the bottom of this page to go to the application form.

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"Everyone I met at Diamond was really kind and inspiring"

"The project was really fun and hands on"

"It was an amazing week and I definitely established that I want a career in chemistry"

 

2022 Work Experience Students

Key Dates

Applications Open December 2023
Applications Close 23:59, Sunday 18th February 2024
Shortlisted candidates contacted by

Successful candidates will be notified by Friday 8th March 2024

Dates of Placements  Monday 8th July - Friday 12th July 2024

 

Projects

Explore the fantastic range of projects that span many different areas within Diamond.
 

Please carefully read all project descriptions before selecting your preferred projects in the application form. In the application form you can apply for up to 5 projects, and rank your choices in order of preference.

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    The study of extra-terrestrial rocky material, such as meteorites or material from sample return missions, involves detailed chemical characterisation. The material composition, revealed by the analysis, can tell us about the origins and evolution of the solar system. This project will teach you about how synchrotrons help in the study and exploration of the solar system and will be run across two beamlines DIAD and I11. We will use two techniques: X-ray tomography (an imaging technique) to study 3-dimensional structure and X-ray diffraction (a scattering technique) to study chemical composition. We will study some real and some simulated extra-terrestrial materials and build a picture of where they have come from.

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    In order to develop the next generation of materials including photovoltaics for solar power generation, ultra-light alloys and materials for nano-electronics we need to understand how their precise atomic structure determines their functional properties. At ePSIC we use electron microscopes to directly and indirectly image the structure and chemical content of materials at atomic resolution. During this project you will work alongside ePSIC staff to study the atomic structure of novel nanomaterials. You will operate state-of-the-art electron microscopes to collect raw data, which you will then process using python code run on Diamond’s computer cluster. This project will give you an insight into one of the most powerful analytical techniques underpinning modern materials discovery.

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    The web is becoming an increasingly powerful tool to provide engaging experiences for users. In this project, students will design, create and test an interactive webpage using HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The webpage will provide information on the different instruments available at Diamond, including a map of where each instrument is located. The students applying for the project should have an interest in programming languages such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript but full training will be provided during the placement week.

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    At XChem, through automation, computational geekery and engineering, we believe in developing open and accessible tools to drive drug-discovery.
    In this project, you will gain drug-discovery pipeline experience – from early-stage chemistry to crystallography - working alongside XChem chemists, coding geeks and crystallographers. You will be exposed to different fields of expertise, and you will develop a better understanding of how the different scientific fields work together to drive drug-discovery.

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    Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are fast digital logic devices for high-speed control and computation. They are widely used in a variety of applications including telecoms, guidance systems, high performance computing and data centres, and even stock market trading. At Diamond we use FPGAs mainly to control and diagnose the beams in our particle accelerators, and also in the acquisition of data from the beamline experiments. This project will introduce the student to the basic concepts of FPGAs, and give some understanding of how they work, how to program them, and why we use them. 

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    In Diamond's data acquisition group, there is a strong emphasis on writing tests for any new code before it gets used on a beamline, since there is limited time to fix any problems once the code is in production. One problem we have is that it is very difficult to write realistic tests for code which interacts with hardware without actually having that hardware. Diamond have recently setup a few test rigs, where we can test our code against real hardware without using up limited beamline-testing time. In this project, students will develop programs in Python within the Bluesky framework to test the capabilities of motors and cameras.

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    Every day we come into contact with the results of programming and we often do not appreciate the complexity of the programs that run our TVs, washing machines, phones, satnavs, cameras etc., and Diamond Light Source is no different. Without programming Diamond would not be able to run any of our experiments and advance our knowledge of the world around us. In this project you will get to test your programming skills by working in Python on Linux to create a graphical user interface to control an ssd1305 LCD screen. You will show the user a panel with buttons and input-boxes that they can use to control the display. You will then use your newly developed programming skills to complete some post-processing on data captured from one of Diamond's detectors.
    The students applying for this project should have a basic knowledge of Python and preferably be familiar with Linux (but this is not essential) - please outline your experience in your application Supporting Statement.

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    Bacteria can produce greenhouse gases using enzymes, which are made of protein. Some act like nanofurnaces, turning fertiliser into nitrous oxide gas. We study these using X-ray crystallography. Learn to crystallise proteins and analyse their 3D structure, so you can reveal how iron is the key to this powerful chemistry!

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    The new VMXi beamline is the latest member of the MX beamline family. This fully automated beamline is dedicated in situ crystallography where the crystallisation experiment is on the beamline. The student will setup crystallisation trials in the laboratory to test various crystallisation methods, review the experiment and finally collect diffraction data on the beamline to compare the outcome. To assess the outcome we’ll be looking at diffractions images and three-dimensional protein structures.

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    Diamond’s detectors are essential in allowing our scientists to collect the data that they need for their experiments. It is crucial that these detectors are precisely calibrated so that the scientists can trust that their data is accurate. We have built a source of red light for the calibration of detectors operating at low energy range. The source can be set to different intensities of light. During this project the student will take measurements of the source with a calibrated photodiode to investigate the performance of the source.

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    Almost all of the work done at Diamond has an element of electronic control; from the particle accelerator and experimental hutches to the safety systems and offices. So it is important that these electronic systems function correctly. The students will see an overview of how some of these systems function. They will then have an opportunity to develop hardware and software skills, while designing, building and testing their own small-scale electronic Control System.

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    The Diamond spectroscopy beamlines specialise in x-ray absorption and emission techniques, which are vital in understanding molecular structures and electronic transitions. This project aims to use Python programming to explore and interpret x-ray absorption spectra (XAS) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering spectra (RIXS), merging scientific inquiry with programming skills, and offering an exciting exploration into the world of X-ray spectroscopy through a computational lens. During your time at Diamond you will use Python’s libraries to plot and visualise sample theoretical and experimental XAS and RIXS data, and create a user-friendly interface for exploring and interpreting spectroscopic results.

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    The Electron accelerators used to create synchrotron radiation at Diamond emit neutron and x-ray radiation which can harm living organisms when used in an unsafe way. To keep the workplace safe, Health Physics (HP) group provides a very vital role. A student working in the HP team will be involved in day to day tasks including; using radiation monitors, analysis of radiation monitoring data, environment monitoring techniques and a project to design a jig for checking the geometrical effect, linearity, sensitivity, consistency etc. of the radiation monitor.

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    Living organisms communicate with their environment. Humans, for example, can see, feel, taste, smell and hear. But, what about bacteria? How do they perceive their environment? Here at the electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) at Diamond, we are interested in such bacterial processes. We study the mechanism at the molecular level by which bacteria can sense molecules in their environment. The project aims to familiarize the students with the important steps of this research: preparing the sample (bacteria), collecting data with state-of-the-art electron microscopes and interpreting the three-dimensional structures of proteins. Get ready for a journey to the micro-world! 

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    The legal team at Diamond monitors legal and regulatory developments in the UK and overseas in relation to Diamond's activities, as well as providing support and advice on a range of legal matters relating to Diamond. The student will have the opportunity to get involved in live matters the legal team are dealing with, which will encompass a range of commercial law issues and provide an overview of the range of work the legal team undertakes. The work undertaken could include requests for contracts, analysing any legal or regulatory risks, communicating with Diamond staff on matters and drafting contracts.

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    The I15-1 beamline is used to study the average and local structure of materials. Understanding how atoms arrange themselves on short length-scales helps scientists understand the link between structure and functionality of materials such as superconductors and thermoelectrics. The student will perform solid state synthesis to make samples which will then be measured on the beamline to understand how temperature affects the local and average structure. The results will be compared to models to help identify key atom-atom distances and how these change during the experiment.

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    Mechanical Engineering at Diamond involves designing cutting edge machinery, mechanisms and instruments to enable world class science.
    The student will have the chance to work on a small project during which they will use the same tools and processes that the Engineering Team employ. For example Microsoft Project to create project plans/Gantt charts, 3D CAD (Creo 4) to produce part models and drawings, Finite Element Analysis (Ansys 17) to evaluate concept designs and rapid prototyping using 3D printers.

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    At Diamond, accelerator physics has been studied by computer simulation codes such as ELEGANT and Accelerator Toolbox. The program code simulates dynamics of electron beams using related physics and results in beam trajectories, beam distributions, and many parameters. The students will learn the basics of accelerator physics, work on simulating basic particle beam dynamics, and join technical discussions. The students applying for this project should have a very basic knowledge of Python, electromagnetism, statistics, and linear algebra.

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    Learning and development helps our employees continually gain new skills, grow their knowledge, and increase their confidence which better equips them in the workplace now and in their future careers. The project will be to research a topic selected for you and to create some Digital Learning. We will show you how to use and incorporate interesting and interactive elements that will bring your training to life.

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    Insertion devices (undulators and wigglers) produce the very high intensity x-rays used by most beamlines at Diamond. The energy of the X-rays can be concentrated at a few frequencies by wiggling the electron beam. This is accomplished using periodic arrays of magnets called undulators, which oscillate the electrons around their otherwise straight trajectory. It’s important we get these oscillations right. This project covers the measurement and tuning of an undulator’s magnetic field to correct the electron oscillations. Using an 8 meter long measurement bench, the insertion device control system, and specialist software you will estimate and carry out the tuning needed on the magnets, and confirm your results afterwards.

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    The student will plan and carry out a lab experiment to investigate factors affecting the corrosion of iron. The sample will then be analysed using a variety of techniques including using a nanoprobe X-ray beamline to examine the phases formed as the iron samples are corroded.

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    Diamond is a large organisation and is funded primarily by the government, this therefore means that we are trusted to responsibly spend significant amounts of taxpayer money. The role of Finance in Diamond ensures compliance with financial regulations whilst providing accurate and relevant financial information to the appropriate stakeholders within the organisation. Throughout this work experience project, you will gain experience and understanding of the various functions within Finance, learn the role of each area in ensuring timely production of financial statements, and understand what financial reports are in place to ensure stakeholders needs are met. You will have the opportunity to handle invoices, compute journal entries, formulate financial statements, and produce financial reports.

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    The work experience offers an immersive dive into the fascinating realm of Optics and Metrology. Participants will engage in hands-on sessions, learning precision techniques such as cutting, cleaning, and inspecting wafers using ultrasonic baths and stereo microscopes. Additionally, they'll explore the analysis of multilayer samples through an XRD microscope, gaining practical insights into scientific observation and material analysis. This experience promises valuable skills and insights relevant across scientific disciplines and industries. Skills from Optics and Metrology find broad applications across industries like semiconductors, materials engineering, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. They are vital for quality control, materials research, drug development, and innovation in fields such as manufacturing, electronics, and R&D. These skills support advancements in diverse sectors, from semiconductor manufacturing to cutting-edge nanotechnology and beyond. In a synchrotron, wafers are used for studying samples, while mirrors help control the powerful light beams. Wafers hold materials for experiments and mirrors direct and focus the light for different types of tests. Both are important for doing various experiments in the synchrotron facility.

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    An electron beam travelling through air will quickly lose electrons, as they collide with air molecules and lose energy. To keep the electron beam circulating in the storage ring, the tube they travel in must be kept at a very high vacuum. To measure the vacuum pressure, different types of gauging are used and feedback from these gauges is interlocked into the control system of Diamond.  One of these gauges is known as a Pirani gauge and works by looking at how gas molecules in the vacuum cool a hot filament. The Pirani gauge response to a change in pressure depends on the gas present in the system since every gas has a different specific heat capacity. Understanding how a Pirani responds to these different gases is important in the safe running of the Diamond accelerators. As an example, the student will build a test chamber that can be pumped down to the working pressure range of a Pirani gauge. They will then inject different gases with different heat capacities, the pressure in the chamber will be taken, and the resulting information will be analysed to understand the response of the Pirani.

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    The long-wavelength macromolecular crystallography beamline I23 uses X-ray diffraction to study 3D structures of molecules. X-ray tomography is also applied to image and reconstruct 3D models of macromolecular crystals, to help improve the quality of diffraction data. The student will learn how to collect X-ray tomography images, process the data to produce models of the samples under study and then label the different materials within the samples using advanced visualisation software.

  Start your Application 

Applications for the 2024 Work Experience Programme are now CLOSED. If you have any questions, please email publicengagement@diamond.ac.uk.

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Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.

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