Mentors 2026-27

Mia Hadjiloucas is a 4th year undergraduate Biology student at Imperial, with a great passion for biology. She aims to nurture a genuine curiosity about the natural world. Through her teaching experience, she has been able to cater to students of many different abilities and is a firm believer in making science accessible to all, by making sessions engaging and simplifying complex ideas. (Image credit and information from https://galileosvoyage.com/about-us)

Matthew King left school early and went straight into a five-year apprenticeship in the making of historical musical instruments, which let him into more diverse areas, such as furniture making and furniture restoration. He became self-employed, and continued with a wider range of work and a greater client base. He has worked as a tutor at "Skillway" in Godalming Surrey and “West Dean College” on Art and Conservation in Sussex. He founded Time Traveller Clocks Ltd as a separate entity to focus on manufacturing. Mr King runs this in parallel with his restoration business. Currently he is writing a book on a particularly important area of work that he undertook. His website is timetravellerclocks.com

Dr Patrick Knights is an assistant professor of physics at the University of Birmingham, working in particle physics. His research focusses on direct dark matter search experiments; large experiment housed in laboratories deep under the Earth. His work is in advanced experimental techniques, for example, addressing the challenge of building unprecedentedly sensitive experiments in an extremely clean way while being more than 1 km underground. Patrick is a passionate science communicator with experience teaching at a variety of levels, from primary-school age workshops on the building blocks of the universe, to university-level laboratory course, to public evening lectures. 

Vlad Tir: I am currently a 1st year PhD student in Particle Physics at the University of Birmingham, having previously completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Oxford. My journey began during school, where I was passionate about science and participated in many national competitions and Olympiads, winning medals and meeting many inspiring people, including but not limited to future scientists. This path led me to explore various research experiences across different topics in physics, from building simple solar cells to analysing data from the Large Hadron Collider and simulating high-power lasers. Through these projects, I learned that research is effectively just solving the ultimate puzzles. I also discovered a joy for mentoring by returning to my high school to deliver talks and designing problems for coding contests. My goal is to demystify physics, mathematics, and coding, showing that these subjects are actually just logic waiting to be understood. You do not need to be intimidated by them, as you just need the curiosity to start solving them.

Pete Walters is a second year PhD student in Particle Physics at the University of Birmingham, specialising in Dark Matter research. He has a great passion for scientific engagement and outreach. His life's goal has always been to understand more about how things work, and in his physics studies he has been pursuing this goal tirelessly. This passion and desire for understanding and experimentation is something he tries to pass on to his students.  He is also an avid musician, playing at the Isle of Wight Festival last summer!