Very many congratulations to Dr Celia Butler who was recently appointed as Honorary Senior Lecture at the University of Exeter (Physics & Astronomy).
Celia graduated with a PhD in Physics from the University of Exeter in 2012 following her succesful work on “Microwave Response of Square Mesh Metamaterials” (EPSRC iCase co-funded by QinetiQ).
Prior to her PhD Celia undertook a one year placement at QinetiQ to to work with the Smart Materials team to development novel materials for controlling radio frequencies, and she worked for Flann Microwave Ltd. as part of the design and development team, producing a range of high performance microwave waveguide products (from 2 GHz to 300 GHz) from new bespoke components, to the redesign of current components through numerical modelling.
Following the succesful completion of her thesis she then went back to work in industry and progressed through postions as Radio Frequency Research and Development Engineer (Arikiris, Exeter) and as Design Engineer (Sub10Systems, Kingsteignton) to her current role as Senior Applications Engineer for the Simpleware Product Group at Synopsys (formally Simpleware Ltd.) in Exeter.
“I am thrilled to be awarded the title of Honorary Senior Lecturer in CEMPS at the University of Exeter. I enjoyed many years both as an undergraduate and postgraduate here, and the skills I learnt set me up for a fantastic career adventure.
The outreach work I have done over the years has really helped me to give back to the university and to help students and researchers find their own path. I am delighted to be part of the University of Exeter again.”
Celia has lectured for the University of Exeter on several occasions including:
- Guest lecture for ECM3171 – Computer Aided Engineering
- Various women in industry events
- Career path talks to PhD students and ECRs
She has also guest lectured at other instates:
- University of Surrey on MSc Biomedical Engineering students (2 years)
- Fusion CDT at University of Manchester – Image Based Modelling for (2 years)
- Engineering Simulation Summer School at Hartree Centre (STFC)
- GW4 event (held at University of Bristol) – Postgraduate Training for Research at Cardiovascular – Engineering Interface
Celia provides a fantastic role model for female engineers and scientists at PhD and ECR level, offering them great insight into the opportunities available to them. She will continue to contribute to the CDT in Metamaterials through our PhD-mentorship scheme, providing one-to-one advice to our PhD researchers across their programme of study.
Conversations are currently planned with Celia and Prof Phillipe Youngs to identify how the connection between the University and Synopsys (Simpleware Product Group) as a local business could be utilised further to the benefit of PGRs and ECRs in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, e.g. through interview training and best practise sharing regarding Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity schemes.