Dr Alan Merchant

MA, DPhil (Oxford)

I read Physics at Merton College, Oxford as an undergraduate (1973–76) and started a DPhil in theoretical nuclear physics (1977). I transferred to Wolfson College, Oxford in 1977 and completed the DPhil there (awarded in 1979). From October 1979 to September 1981, I was a Guest Scientist at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (G.S.I.) in Darmstadt, (West) Germany. From October 1981 to August 1984 I was Senior Research Associate at the SERC Daresbury Laboratory, Warrington. I was then a Research Associate at the Instituto de Estudos Avançados, of the Centro Técnico Aeroespacial in São José dos Campos, Brazil (September 1984–October 1987 and October 1988–November 1990). 

From October 1987 to October 1988, I was a Research Assistant in the Department of Nuclear Physics at the University of Oxford (in Dr P. E. Hodgson's group). From October 1991 to September 1996, I was a Research Assistant in the Department of Nuclear Physics at the University of Oxford (in Dr W. D. M. Rae's group) and College Lecturer in Physics at Brasenose for four years in this period. I was then a Research Assistant in the Department of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford (December 1990–September 1991 and October 1996–September 2000) and College Lecturer in Physics at Christ Church from 1996.

I currently work for Sungard in the Milton Business Park, Didcot as a financial risk management consultant.

Since 1991 I have taught first-year undergraduates Mathematics, Classical Mechanics, Optics and Special Relativity, and I have taught second- and third-year undergraduates Atomic Physics, Atmospheric Physics, Electromagnetism, Mathematics, Nuclear and Particle Physics, Optics, Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, Statistical Physics, and Thermodynamics.

My research interests are in low-energy nuclear structure and reactions, and especially in the application of cluster models to particle emission half-lives and quasi-rotational spectra.

I have 100+ articles in refereed journals.

I have to say that physics is now a hobby rather than a profession. I also play a mean game of five-a-side football and play the piano whenever time permits.