matteaston.net

My first answer to, “Who am I?” is always that I’m a Christian. This is the most important part of my identity, because it is God who brings meaning and purpose into my life, and completely changes who I am. Without him, I don’t know who I would be, but I think I would be someone very different.

Another part of who I am is my family. I have a beautiful wife called Farrah, and we have two gorgeous boys called Zachariah and Nathanael. Who I am changed the instant Zach was born, because I am now a father. Who I am has also evolved throughout Zach’s life, and shifted again when Nate was born, as I continually adjust to different priorities, different emotions and different relationships.

I grew up in a great family in a suburb of London. I enjoyed lots of things, from playing football in the field with jumpers for goalposts, to playing with Transformers toys and reading Transformers comics, to writing poetry and songs and playing the piano. I’ve always been a bit of a geek—my parents brought me up to watch Star Trek and Doctor Who, and I used to pretend to be a Jedi in the garden.

Farrah, Zachariah, Nathanael and I all live in China now. We moved here in 2015 and although it’s not always been easy, living here has brought us such rewards.

I’m a physicist. I studied at Oxford University and then completed my PhD at Imperial College London. I now work at Peking University in Beijing, China, as a researcher in the Accelerator Physics group. It’s very exciting, trying to find out how the world works. The more I find out about the world, the more I’m amazed at how it all works! My PhD research was about using high energy particle physics to help with treatment for cancer, so I’m glad that my researcg is able to help people in practical ways too.

When I have free time, I enjoy reading books, playing board games, football and computer games, fixing computers and playing musical instruments.

This is just some facets of who I am. I’m constantly changing and who I am tomorrow will be slightly different from who I am today. Hopefully I’m changing for the better.

Most of the content on this site is from my blog.

Feel free to dive in to whatever interests you, whether that’s my random updates or deeper reflections, photos I’ve taken or interesting things I’ve found.

Or just view posts on certain topics, like God, China, family, science or tech.

At the bottom of the site there are also tools to filter by tags, search the blog or browse the archive.

My physics research has focused on the design and development of particle accelerators and detectors, including radio-frequency quadrupole accelerators (RFQs), non-scaling fixed-field alternating-gradient accelerators (ns-FFAGs), scintillation detectors, and ion mobility spectrometry detectors (IMS). My research has particularly focused on creating automated computer models to streamline the design process. The applications of the accelerators and detectors I have worked on include cancer therapy treatment using charged particle beams, and protection from explosives and chemical and biological weapons.

This site has plenty more information about my professional work and my publications.

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