Profile

Photo:

Deborah Hunter

My CV

  • Education:

    I attended Hunterhouse College (an all girls grammar school) located in Belfast.  It is the school where the scenes of ‘Derry Girls’ are filmed for the popular TV comedy.

    I studied Applied Mathematics and Physics (MSci) and specialised in Medical Applications.  My research project was titled ‘Resonant Combination Radiotherapy’.

    I later completed a PhD in Astrophysics and enjoyed travelling to exotic locations around the world.  Locations included the island of La Palma, the European Southern Observatory in Munich (Garching), Cefalu in Sicily and Utrecht in the Netherlands.  My Thesis was titled ‘The Mysterious Universe: Core-collapse supernovae and the properties of their host galaxies’.

     

     

     

     

  • Qualifications:

    GCSE Subjects:  Mathematics, Additional Mathematics, Double Award Science (Physics, Chemistry & Biology), Geography, Latin, German, English, English Literature.

    AS Subjects:  Mathematics, Physics, Geography, Chemistry

    A2 Subjects: Mathematics (A), Physics (A), Geography (A)

    First Class Honours in Applied Mathematics and Physics (Medical Applications Research Project)

    PhD in Astrophysics

  • Work History:

    Medical Technical Assistant in Radiotherapy at Belvoir Park Hospital (Belfast).

    PhD Researcher in Astrophysics

    Physics teacher/lecturer

    Data Scientist

  • Current Job:

    Data Scientist

    Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract knowledge and insights from structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge and actionable insights from data across a broad range of application domains. Data science is related to data mining, machine learning and big data.

    • About Me:

      I’m a passionate Data Scientist and a former Astrophysicist (PhD). I enjoy playing the piano, salsa dancing and cooking 🙂

    • Read more

      I’m a passionate Data Scientist and a former Astrophysicist (PhD). I enjoy playing the piano, salsa dancing and cooking.

    • Read more

    • My Typical Day:

      Data scientists make discoveries from Big Data! e.g. Data from large Telescopes.

      Data can be found all around us e.g. from the internet, social media, experiments and surveys.

      Most of the world’s data has been generated in the past two years but only a very small percentage is analysed and put to good use. This is why Data Scientists are very much in demand.

    • Read more

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would love to purchase a Telescope and take astronomical images of stars with the help of my students 🙂 Let’s see if we can discover something magical about our Mysterious Universe.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        Piano playing Scientist

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        To become a Medical Physicist or Clinical Scientist

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        No

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        The Script

        What's your favourite food?

        Lasagne

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To be involved in an exciting documentary relating to Astrophysics and Data Science

        Tell us a joke.

        A neutron walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “How much for a beer?” The bartender replies, “For you, no charge.”

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