Profile
Yannick Verbelen
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About Me:
I’m an engineer, physicist and inventor with a passion for electronic circuits, robots, and anything related to ionizing radiation and radioactivity. I grew up in Belgium, but moved to England when I found out that Cornwall has loads of abandoned uranium mines waiting to be re-discovered and explored!
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As a teenager I was already fascinated by science and technology. I couldn’t understand how satellites could take such high resolution pictures of my house from orbit, how GPS receivers can pinpoint my location anywhere on the planet, how nuclear reactors produce electricity by splitting atoms, or how those CERN scientists digging a tunnel under the Alps could help in the discovery of antimatter. No, I didn’t understand any of that, and to me, all those scientists and engineers pulling off these incredible achievements were magicians. They must have been the smartest people on the planet, I thought, and I admired them for using their knowledge to solve the problems of society: energy, pollution, transportation, and so on. I also wanted to help people, just like them, and from an early age I had already decided I wanted to be a scientist or engineer as well. But it was so hard to decide, it turned out there were many different kinds of scientists and engineers, and I couldn’t choose. So I made a calculated guess and studied industrial engineering after high school. Industrial engineering has a bit of chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanics, electronics, informatics, and material science in it, so it felt like it was the best of all fields combined. I became no expert in anything in particular, but a generalist, an inventor with a broad understanding of science, engineering, and technology, with enough curiosity to discover the gaps in my knowledge and use my skills to solve problems for others.
While working on a PhD in power electronics and renewable energy, I had the opportunity to teach a variety of subjects at a university level, and became an expert in electronic circuit design and circuit boards. I reached the point where I designed electronic gadgets for fun — I designed my own smart watch, which was pretty cool! After completing my PhD I was looking for a new challenge, which presented itself when a team of physicists at Bristol University was looking for a crazy inventor and generalist to build nuclear robots. I moved to Bristol, settled in, and took a deep dive in nuclear physics and nuclear engineering, quickly learning a lot about ionizing radiation and radioactivity. At first I was rather cautious about radiation, especially after watching the excellent HBO series on Chernobyl, but the initial fear gradually turned into a dark fascination, to the point that exploring abandoned uranium mines in Cornwall is currently a hobby of mine!
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My Work:
I’m a researcher at Bristol University, and design and build radiation detection systems, electronic circuits, robots, and anything that is related to nuclear engineering and radiation. My current project is building a nuclear fusion reactor in the basement of the University (but keep that a secret, it makes people nervous)!
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As an engineer, physicist, and inventor, my work is focused on solving problems related to nuclear engineering in the broadest sense of the word. I design and build radiation detectors (and love some precision soldering in the process of assembling inventions!), integrate them with robots, and deploy them in radioactive places that are too dangerous for humans to venture into. I’ve spent many weeks in Chornobyl, Ukraine, as well as in Fukushima, Japan, to test and refine various robotic solutions. The intense radiation is not only harmful for humans but for electronics as well, so clever electronic engineering is necessary to make the robots and their sensors resistant to radiation. It involves a healthy amount of problem solving and a multidisciplinary approach. Deploying radiation detection robots in nuclear disaster scenarios such as Chornobyl or Fukushima can be quite stressful, and learning how to collaborate effectively in a team and streamline communication is an essential part of the job. We regularly practice nuclear disaster style horror scenarios, because my team will be the first to be sent in if another nuclear accident takes place. Testing new technologies, including novel developments such as machine vision, artificial intelligence, StarLink etc. is also part of the research, and keeps me busy when I’m not traveling to the other side of the world to help people solve radioactive problems.
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My Typical Day:
My golden rule is “nothing good ever happens before 10 am”. Like most engineers and scientists, I’m definitely not a morning person!
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On a typical day I wake up between 9 am and 10 am, and cycle to campus or work from home. The experimental work is done in labs, but a lot of the circuit design work and prototyping takes place at home or in the office. I have a 3D printer on my desk for mechanical prototypes. I love taking things apart to learn how they work, so I’m often tinkering with technology to reverse engineer stuff. Meetings are my least favorite part of the day, so I try to skip them as often as possible, much to the frustration of my boss! During lunch, I catch up with students and make sure they have everything they need to continue their projects. Between 4 pm and 6 pm I cycle back home and pick up groceries on the way, then cook dinner for my family. From 9 pm onward, when emails stop flowing in, the actual engineering work takes place. I draw circuits diagrams, read datasheets, write software, run computer simulations, or design 3D models for prototypes. A hot cup of apple-cinnamon tea keeps me focused until around midnight when I head to bed, although sometimes it’s much later than that too. When deadlines are imminent, I occasionally work through the night until dawn, but my wife really doesn’t approve of that!
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What I'd do with the prize money:
I’m a STEM Ambassador and regularly organise workshops in the weekends and school holidays to teach young people skills such as soldering, 3D printing, or programming microcontrollers. If I’d win the £500 prize money, which I very much intend to, I will spend it on purchasing geiger tubes. These will then be used to run workshops on particle physics for students in schools, a great way to share my fascination with radioactivity with younger generations! There are few things cooler to build than your own geiger counter which makes the characteristic ticking sounds everyone knows from video games or films, when exposed to radioactive materials.
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Education:
I completed primary and secondary school in Brussels, graduating with fairly average grades in pretty much everything except for sciences and history. My highest scoring subject was chemistry, worst scoring subjects were French and music, which I absolutely had no feeling for. After high school I was interested in many STEM fields, so decided to study industrial engineering which combines physics, chemistry, electronics, mechanics, material sciences, maths, and programming. I quickly developed a passion for electronics and its applications, and graduated at the age of 21 with a Bachelor degree in industrial engineering, and a Masters degree in electrical engineering 2 years later. Because I had a talent for explaining complex matters, I was offered a teaching position at Brussels University, and started working towards a PhD at the same time. After 9 years, I became an expert in pretty much anything related to electronics engineering and defended my PhD work in front of a jury and audience of over 50 colleagues and students. I wrote a book about renewable energy as part of my PhD research, for which I was awarded the highest possible score. Achievement unlocked!
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Qualifications:
ASO (general education) with majors in science and economy until 18.
Bachelor degree in industrial engineering
Masters degree in electrical engineering
PhD in renewable energy and power engineering
9 years of teaching experience
5 years of postdoc research
a lifetime of learning! -
Work History:
I did many jobs, including filling shelves at Lidl and driving around with forklifts in the warehouse, plumbing and electrical works, electronic repairs, engineering consultancy, and so on. Met a lot of interesting individuals along the way, and found that the journey itself matters more than the destination.
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Current Job:
Nuclear physicist
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Employer:
Interface Analysis Centre, a very multi-disciplinary research group at Bristol University
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My Interview
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How would you describe yourself in 3 words?
nuclear engineer and inventor
What did you want to be after you left school?
Archaeologist or chemist
Were you ever in trouble at school?
Very often. Mostly related to sneaking into the chemistry lab and doing stuff with chemicals I really shouldn't, like mixing sugar with potassium nitrate and heating it over a bunsen burner...
If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?
I would probably want to rule the world, as a benevolent dictator
Who is your favourite singer or band?
Robert Miles
What's your favourite food?
Grilled chicken in a terragon cream sauce
If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!
I wish I could travel faster than the speed of light, to visit planets in nearby solar systems within a human lifetime, in a giant spaceship, carrying a purple lightsaber
Tell us a joke.
A neutron walks into a bar, orders a drink, and asks for the bill. The bartender says "usually it's £3, but for you it's FREE OF CHARGE!"
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