PhD Odyssey: Bill Kamtchou, doctoral candidate for the School of Physics talks about his lucky break into the PhD world

Image Credit: Bill Kamtchou

Bill Kamtchou highlights his dedication to science and the obstacles he’s overcome as a PhD student at UCD.

I’ve always had a love for space and the unknown. For some people the vastness of space may make them uncomfortable, but for me, it brings a sense of serenity. I earned my Honours Bachelor degree in Physics & Astrophysics from Trinity College Dublin in 2019 and enrolled in UCD’s Space Science & Technology master’s programme the same year.

Learning about how spacecraft and missions are designed was an introduction to the engineering world and truly a scientifically enriching experience. In an ideal world, I would’ve continued my road to become a fully-fledged astrophysicist. However, it wasn’t until I was halfway through my master’s degree that I realised job opportunities for astrophysicists were concentrated in only a few parts of the world, and Ireland was not one of them.

My lucky break into the PhD world came on a random Tuesday when I ran into Bairbre Fox, the manager for the School of Physics. We had a chat about my future, and she suggested I talk with Seán—a member of staff in medical physics. I sent him an email and we met the following week. After I discussed my background with him, we had an in-depth discussion about medical physics. He mentioned a detector from CERN and the possibility of a PhD candidate joining his lab for research related to it. That evening I went home and sat at my computer for hours studying medical physics. When I got up, I had made up my mind. 

The first step in any PhD is to find a supervisor. While doing so, you have to remember that you’ll be working with this person for the next 4 years. It is essential that you collaborate well. This was an instant check on my list. Seán and the rest of the staff in the Centre for Physics in Health Medicine are a pleasure to work with. 

The next step is to sort out funding. Science, much like everything else in this world, does not advance without money. I took some time to make up my mind about what I wanted to do next, and I missed the deadline for the Irish Research Council—a body that funds a significant number of PhDs in Ireland. Seán suggested that I submit an application and research proposal for an internal source of funding in the School of Physics, called the Scholar in Research and Teaching, or simply SIRAT. There were three scholarships up for grabs, but despite our strong application, I came fourth, and I was devastated. This was the first obstacle in my PhD journey, and it affirmed how critical funding is in academia. However, someone decided not to take the funding, and I was awarded the scholarship since I was next in line.

So, four years and more obstacles later, here we are. I’m currently in the last stages of writing up my PhD thesis, and soon it will be time for one last submission. My research focused on developing a Compton camera. Theoretically, this advancement in nuclear medicine can reduce the required patient radiation dose. The results of my research demonstrated that the Timepix3 detector can be effectively used for Compton imaging, offering a spatial resolution comparable to current state-of-the-art clinical detectors but with an approximately 15-20-fold increased sensitivity. This means that patients could receive 1/20 of the current doses administered in nuclear medicine and still produce clinically relevant images.

My four years of research were filled with their ups and downs, but I wouldn’t change a thing other than the stipend, of course, although that’s a much longer conversation. I had a misconception that you needed to be an expert to do a PhD, but it’s actually the other way around. A PhD teaches you how to become an expert—albeit in a highly specialized field—and to think critically. For those at the start or in the middle of their PhD journeys, remember that this is just a transitory part of your life. So, don’t let the work become everything. I know it’s hard—I dream about code and experiments!

Remember that you are contributing novel work to the collective knowledge of humanity. A PhD is honestly what you make of it, a cliché I know, but it’s the truth.