On 10th July 2024, members of the Applied Optics ran sessions for sixth formers (17-18 year olds) from local schools, as part of the University of Kent's Sixth Form Conference on Maths, Physics and Engineering.
For those interested in the physical world, but also in applying this knowledge to real-world problems, the medical applications of physics can provide a fascinating and rewarding career.
The outreach sessions, which were organised as part of a whole-day event with contributions from physics, engineering and maths, focused on how physics lies behind various diagnostic and therapeutic techniques used in healthcare, from PET scanners to endoscopes.
Students attending heard about some of the physics behind these devices, and had a chance to interact with a live demo of a Michelson interferometer, giving them an appreciation of how sensitive optical interferometry can be to tiny disturbances and changes in position. They then had a chance to try some of the medical imaging technology being developed at Kent, including a fluorescence endomicrosope and a portable optical coherence tomography imaging system.