• Question: What companies, hospitals or schools did your designs help?

    Asked by asks521trek to John G, charlotteslade, Charles D, andreeaclaudiatoma on 2 Jul 2025.
    • Photo: Charlotte Slade

      Charlotte Slade answered on 2 Jul 2025:

      That’s a fantastic question, because it’s the whole reason I do my job! It’s one thing to build a cool instrument; it’s another thing to know it’s out there helping people solve real problems.

      My instruments are very specialized, so you won’t find them in your school science lab. They are used by people working on the absolute cutting-edge of science and technology.

      1. Companies Making Your Gadgets Better:
      The biggest users are high-tech companies. Have you ever wondered how the computer chip in your phone or games console gets smaller and faster every year? It’s because companies are inventing new, microscopic materials. They use my XPS instruments to check that those materials are perfect. So, while I didn’t design your phone, I likely designed a tool that was used by the engineers who did. The same goes for companies developing next-generation batteries or super-bright TV screens.

      2. Companies Making Medicine Safer:
      My instruments don’t go in hospitals, but they are critical for companies that make things that do. For example, if a company develops a new artificial hip joint or a stent for your heart, they have to prove it’s perfectly clean and won’t be rejected by the body. My instruments are the ‘identity scanners’ they use to check the surface of that implant and make sure it’s 100% safe before it ever goes near a patient.

      3. Universities Discovering the Future:
      Lots of my instruments go to universities all over the world. There, PhD students and professors (scientists a bit like me!) use them for pure discovery. They might be trying to invent a brand new type of solar panel, understand a strange new material they discovered, or figure out why a historical artifact is decaying. They are the explorers using my tools to draw the maps for technologies that might not exist for another 20 years.

      So, my designs are being used right now to build the next phone you’ll own, to make sure medical devices are safe, and to invent the future. It’s a pretty amazing feeling.

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