• Question: What does the future in your field look like?

    Asked by east521sudd on 13 Mar 2025.
    • Photo: Charlotte Slade

      Charlotte Slade answered on 13 Mar 2025:

      The future of surface science? It’s like we’re about to turn science fiction into reality! 🚀

      Imagine tools that can:
      • Analyze materials at such precise atomic levels that we can design solar panels converting 50% more energy
      • Create batteries that charge in minutes and last for weeks
      • Develop medical treatments so targeted they can attack specific cancer cells without side effects
      • Build quantum computers using materials we can now understand molecule by molecule

      We’re moving from just understanding materials to actually designing them from the ground up. It’s like being molecular architects, where we can literally blueprint how materials will behave before we even create them.

      Climate change solutions, sustainable technologies, revolutionary medical treatments – they’re all going to come from understanding surfaces and materials at scales we’re just beginning to explore.

      The most exciting part? The researchers just starting their careers now will be the ones making discoveries we can’t even imagine yet. Every breakthrough opens up entire universes of possibility.

    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 13 Mar 2025:

      With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, we are looking to an exciting future for astrochemistry.

    • Photo: Maha Javed

      Maha Javed answered on 13 Mar 2025:

      The future of my job is like having super-smart robot assistants… Computers will help banks move money faster, keep everything safe, and maybe even answer questions like a talking bank helper. It’s like magic, but with coding!

    • Photo: Helen Littler

      Helen Littler answered on 13 Mar 2025:

      We are having to consider what impact self driving cars will have on how roads work. Will they read road signs and traffic signals? How will they interact with pedestrians and cyclists who move unpredictably?

    • Photo: Luke Fountain

      Luke Fountain answered on 13 Mar 2025:

      In space crop production, we’re looking to build greenhouse and controlled environment facilities on the Moon and one day Mars, to allow astronauts to grow their own food, supporting long term human space exploration.

    • Photo: Jo Brown

      Jo Brown answered on 17 Mar 2025:

      Exciting and Scary. The Food industry has a lot of challenges coming up especially with trying to be more sustainable and trying to feed a growing population. We don’t attract many people either as not a lot of people know we exist. So lots of challenges coming up which is exciting to be part of but scary to have the teams we need to help solve them

    • Photo: Martin Pike

      Martin Pike answered on 17 Mar 2025:

      In radiology, I doubt that there will be radical new types of ‘scans’, but there are always improvements in the speed and spatial resolution of CT, MRI and ultrasound machines. Functional imaging – where tracers highlight certain chemicals or activity in the body – is likely to progress. This allows us to find disease (usually cancers, or the spread of cancers) on the basis of physiology, not just anatomical distortions.
      In the NHS there will have to be a long hard look at what we should do for the best health of the nation – at the minute much of the work (and money) is concentrated at the end of people’s lives or following lesions that are unlikely to cause harm. This will be a tough thing to tackle, that governments will not want to face up to and clinicians will find hard to agree on.

    • Photo: Martin McMahon

      Martin McMahon answered on 17 Mar 2025:

      Very exciting times are ahead for 3D printing. These are technologies that are changing the way we make things, and the possibilities are growing almost every day. AI is going to have a large part to play in this too and as we develop more metals that can be 3D printed that will make it possible to print even more things.

    • Photo: Timothy Nixon

      Timothy Nixon answered on 18 Mar 2025:

      Really exciting! There are always new technologies to integrate in to our work as well as new and challenging construction projects to get involved with. the biggest challenge will be climate change related with many adaptations needed to cope with the changes that we already have and even more science to be done on helping to reduce future effects. By becoming a scientist, you can help future generations and that is a great opportunity.

    • Photo: Callum Morris

      Callum Morris answered on 20 Mar 2025:

      The future within the nuclear sector is looking very promising.

      Currently we are developing plans for the next to enrich the next generation of fuels for use in small modular reactors which have applications in many places and can give a large amount of energy.

      After that the sector is looking to progress into the more sci-fi routes with attempting to commercialise Fusion reactors which don’t require the radioactive source, and is entirely renewable due to only requiring Hydrogen.

    • Photo: Rachael Eggleston

      Rachael Eggleston answered on 20 Mar 2025:

      A tough one!! I study wild populations of plants, and I’d say we’re moving pretty quickly from molecular markers (looking at a *tiny* bit of individuals’ DNA, what makes them all different) to whole-genome sequencing (looking at everything)! It’s like if you went from looking at a bunch of different paintings based on a random tiny bit of them versus looking at the whole things. Super exciting!

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