About me

Hi! I am a postdoctoral research assistant specialising in particle accelerator environmental sustainability at the John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, University of Oxford.

In the first 3 years of my postdoc, I worked jointly with the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. I spent the majority of my research time working on evaluating the environmental impact of ISIS-II – the proposed upgrade to the ISIS project – from construction to decommission, via a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). In this I identified the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions of key accelerator components, I assessed the carbon footprint of proposed technologies, and I considered other environmental impacts such. I then worked to reduce the environmental impact of building, operating and decommissioning large accelerator facilities like ISIS-II.

I am a member of the Sustainable HECAP+ initiative. This grassroots initiative has many ongoing projects; in March 2025 we published “Environmental sustainability in basic research. A perspective from HECAP+”, which may also be endorsed by supporters.

Outside of my research I am an advocate for equity and inclusion, I enjoy teaching, and I work towards making research and academia in general more environmentally sustainable. I am an IUPAP Accelerator Engagement Ambassador; in this role I can bring a talk on particle accelerators and environmental sustainability to your schools, communities or events (contact me!). I am an organiser of the Sustainable High Energy Physics Workshop, a member of the Laboratory Directors Group (LDG) Working Group on the Sustainability Assessment of Accelerators, and a member of the Oxford Physics Gender Equity Network Committee.

I completed my Ph.D. in high energy particle physics at McGill University, Montreal in 2023. In this I worked remotely at the Belle II Collaboration, Japan in an 1000+ strong international collaboration.

Work with me

• Summer Internship Opportunities
• Join the Sustainable HECAP+ Initiative

Summary

• Postdoctoral Research: The environmental impact of particle accelerators.
• Ph.D. Research: Measuring a specific decay ratio with missing energy at the Belle II experiment (a $B$ Meson Factory), Tsukuba, Japan
• Masters Research: Dark matter (axion and ALP) detection at the DEAP3600 detector, Sudbury, Canada
• Interests:
  • The environment and entomology
  • Equity, diversity and inclusivity in STEM
  • Practicing physics and justice
  • Teaching, tutoring and science communication
  • Volleyball, cycling, surfing, and rollerskating
  • Saxophone and piano

Contact

hannah dot wakeling at physics dot ox dot ac dot uk