Congratulations to Dr Elizabeth Martin, who was recently awarded her PhD. Her thesis was titled ‘Microfluidic Elasto-Magnetic Materials For Controlled Swimming And Pumping’.
During her time as part of the CDT, she published 6 papers and was involved with multiple Outreach activities, notably Pint of Science and Metabuddies, a PGR-led scheme where PGRs work with local schools to inspire and engage the next generation of scientists. In 2019, she ran a summer student project on ‘Investigation of Coupled Elasto-Magnetic Pumps for Wireless Fluid Movement’, supervising a final-year undergraduate student.
She also won best poster prize at Magnetism and Magnetic Materials (MMM 2020)
After working as a Research Assistant for Prof. Feodor Ogrin for a few months after handing in her thesis, Elizabeth now works as Information Analyst for Digital Health and Care Wales.
Elizabeth reflects back on her time with the CDT and offers some advice for those who are considering a PhD or in the early stages of their research degree:
So, this is it, I’ve finished, I’ve been awarded my PhD from the University of Exeter and I’m now officially Dr Martin. Nine conferences, five papers, three science laboratories, two lockdowns…. and a partridge in a pear tree (no not really) just a slightly dazed me. Even now, a few weeks on after moving from Exeter and starting a new job in a different field, it seems strange to think that I’ve completed my PhD.
No one person’s PhD experience is the same as someone else’s, but I will try to shed some light on mine. The title of my PhD was “Microfluidic Elasto-magnetic materials for controlled swimming and pumping”. When I started the PhD, I expected to learn about magnetism, microfluidics and microswimmers, how to use certain equipment and do certain processes etc., alongside many of those key soft skills, but I did not realise how much I’d learn about myself.
The PhD was a rewarding and very challenging experience. I think anyone who has completed a Physics PhD and does not admit to having those difficult times is not being 100% truthful and has their very rose-tinted spectacles on. While the PhD has been a challenge, during the experience I have had so many great moments; times full of fun and laughter with some great friends and colleagues, and those amazing eureka moments.
My advice to anyone who is considering doing a PhD or is just starting out is to; firstly, steer your research in the direction you find the most enjoyable, secondly get involved with different things, outreach, committees, training events, teaching etc., you won’t be doing the PhD forever and you never know what will be useful in the future, and finally, try to enjoy the experience, a great sense of humour goes a long way.
I would just like to end by saying thank you, as there are too many people to list individually, I would like to thank everyone in the ABIOMATER Team, everyone connected to the EPSRC Centre For Doctoral Training in Metamaterials (XM2) at the University of Exeter and last but not least, my friends and family, without all of these people my PhD would not have been the enriching experience that it was.
Elizabeth has co-authored the following publications:
2021
- September 2021, D. Osuna Ruiz, E.L. Martin, A.P. Hibbins, F.Y. Ogrin, Unidirectional emission and reconfigurability of channeled spin waves from a vortex core in a teardrop-shaped nanopatch. Phys. Rev. B 104, 094427
- May 2021, M.T. Bryan, E.L. Martin, A. Pac, A.D. Gilbert, F.Y. Ogrin, Metachronal waves in magnetic micro-robotic paddles for artificial cilia, Commun. Mater. 2, 14 (2021)
2020
- October 2020, J.L. Binsley, E.L. Martin, T.O. Myers, S. Pagliara, F.Y. Ogrin, Microfluidic devices powered by integrated elasto-magnetic pumps, Lab Chip,2020,20,4285-4295
2019
- October 2019, D. Matsunaga, J.K. Hamilton, F. Meng, N. Bukin, E.L. Martin, F.Y. Ogrin, J.M. Yeomans, R. Golestanian, Controlling collective rotational patterns of magnetic rotors, Nature Communications 10, Article number: 4696 (2019)
- April 2019, M.T. Bryan, J. Garcia-Torres, E.L. Martin, J.K. Hamilton, C. Calero, P.G. Petrov, C.P. Winlove, I. Pagonabarraga, P. Tierno, F. Sagués and F.Y. Ogrin, Microscale Magneto-Elastic Composite Swimmers at the Air-Water and Water-Solid Interfaces Under a Uniaxial Field, Physical Review Applied 11, 4, 044019
- January 2019, E.L. Martin, M.T. Bryan, S. Pagliara and F.Y. Ogrin, Advanced Processing of Micropatterned Elasto-Magnetic Membranes, IEEE Transactions on Magnetics, vol. 55, no. 7, pp. 1-6, July 2019, Art no. 2900406.
Elizabeth has presented at the following conferences:
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Aleksandra Pac, Andrew D. Gilbert and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: Investigation of a Coupled Elasto-Magnetic Discs Structure for Low Reynolds Number Pumps, MMM 2020, Florida, U.S. (moved to virtual), November 2020 (won best poster prize)
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Aleksandra Pac, Stefano Pagliara, Andrew D. Gilbert and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Presentation: Investigation of a Coupled Elasto-Magnetic Discs Structure for Low Reynolds Number Pumps, Intermag 2020, Montreal, Canada, May 2020
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Joshua K. Hamilton, Stefano Pagliara and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: Advanced Processing of Microfluidic Elasto-Magnetic Devices, Materials Research Exchange 2020, London, UK, February 2020
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Stefano Pagliara, Andrew D. Gilbert and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Presentation: Investigation of Coupled Elasto-Magnetic Pumps for Microfluidic Applications, Magnetism 2019, Leeds, UK, April 2019
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Stefano Pagliara and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: Advanced Processing of Bio-Inspired Magnetic Metamaterials, 2019 Joint MMM-Intermag Conference, Washington DC, USA, January 2019
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, Stefano Pagliara and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Presentation: Development of novel magnetic elastic membranes for microfluidic applications, BIMS 2018, Exeter, UK, July 2018 (aided in organisation of workshop)
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Presentation: Development of novel magnetic elastic membranes for microfluidic applications, Magnetism 2018, Manchester, UK, April 2018
- Elizabeth L. Martin, Matthew T. Bryan, C. Peter Winlove, Andrew D. Gilbert, Peter G. Petrov and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: Development of novel magneto-elastic membranes for microfluidic applications, MMM 2017, Pittsburgh, USA, November 2017
- Elizabeth L. Martin, David Osuna Ruiz, Matthew T. Bryan, C. Peter Winlove, Andrew D. Gilbert, Peter G. Petrov and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: The Investigation of the Coercive Field and Saturation Magnetisation of Microscopic CoNiP Elements Produced by Electrodeposition, Micromotors Summer School, Dresden, Germany , August 2017 (awarded travel grant)
- Elizabeth L. Martin, David Osuna Ruiz, Matthew T. Bryan, C. Peter Winlove, Andrew D. Gilbert, Peter G. Petrov and Feodor Y. Ogrin; Poster: The Investigation of the Coercive Field and Saturation Magnetisation of Microscopic CoNiP Elements Produced by Electrodeposition, Magnetism UK 2017, York, UK
