Profile

Luke Ryves

Physics Ph.D. student Luke Ryves tells us about studying Physics at USYD.

Why did you choose Physics?

At school mathematics, physics and chemistry were easy for me and I found these interesting too. I thought that I wanted to do engineering, but I didn't like the idea of choosing a stream (chemical/mechanical/aeronautical) before first year as I had no idea which to do.

Why did you choose the University of Sydney?

My UAI allowed me to enter the advanced science courses at other universities but I decided on the University of Sydney. My Dad (who has no tertiary education) said that I should go to Sydney because I could sit on the grass and talk about changing the world.

What was studying for a degree in Science like?

In the first year studying Science I could do four subjects and then whittle away one each year. Starting Honours I had to decide to go to physics or chemistry - it was never a decision that I liked physics more than chemistry, it was a choice of particular research projects offered to me. In the end, based on research projects done as an undergraduate, I decided that I enjoyed the day-to-day work in a plasma lab (pulling apart machines and putting them back together again) better than in a polymer chemistry lab.

What are you studying/researching?

My project has been about studying materials with features on the nanometre (billionth of a metre) scale. I've been helping develop a system that is capable of reliably depositing less than a single layer of atoms at a time, enabling us to grow multilayered materials with almost atomic layer precision. Such multilayers can have improved strength over single layer materials. I've also been involved in using an optical technique to study the growth of very thin layers, which have very different properties to bulk materials.

What would be your ultimate career?

I see a traditional career (one job/company for 30 years) as being neither an attractive nor realistic future for someone of my generation. I’m about to move to the US to work for a biomedical startup company, which will be a great adventure. Only a small percentage of startups succeed, but if we manage to develop and sell some useful technology I might not ever have to work again, making it my ultimate (as in last) job. More likely I’ll go on to another job, maybe to a post doc, maybe something else. I like having my options open.