Jesse Slim

Postdoctoral Research Fellow
EQUS
University of Queensland
Road-tripping Brisbane to Longreach (2024), around QLD (2023)

What do you do?

I’m an experimental physicist. That means that on most days I work in the lab, where I do experiments to figure out how the world around us works! The lab is like a LEGO set: there’s all kinds of lasers and mirrors and lenses, and by tinkering around with them I try to find out something new, or build something useful.

How did you get to where you are today?

I’ve always been a curious person, wanting to learn and figure out new things. That made me study physics and mathematics at university (TU Delft, Netherlands), as those are among the most fundamental sciences. They underlie (almost) everything we experience in the world around us. Moreover, physics and maths can be very elegant too! After that, I continued with a PhD in optomechanics to study the interaction between light (‘opto’) and tiny vibrating micro-strings (‘mechanics’), at AMOLF in Amsterdam. I discovered that I love tinkering in the lab, which made me continue my research here in Australia at UQ.

What’s the best thing about your role?

Working together with other great people and exchanging our knowledge.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

I have no specific plans yet, but I imagine I’ll continue working in academic research as long as I still like it. The good thing is that there’s heaps of jobs in industry as well, if I ever want to try something different.

What do you enjoy doing besides physics?

I love camping, cycling and good food.