After an Honours’ degree in Australia and working for 3 years as a science communicator in schools, Lily started her PhD in atomic and molecular physics in the Institute of Fundamental Physics at the Spanish national scientific institute, CSIC (degree granted by the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain). This research was part of the Marie Curie FP7 international training network ‘ARGENT’, a multidisciplinary project focused on improving radiotherapy. There her work included the design and testing of new ion sources, as well as measurement and modelling of fundamental scattering processes in biological molecules. After her PhD defence in September 2018, she joined the Chemistry department at University College London to continue research, working in astrochemistry on the discovery and quantification of new and unusual ions and chemistry in ionospheres and nebula. Though disparate research areas, both projects involved vacuum physics, ion production, various forms of mass spectrometry and interdisciplinary collaborations.
Lily joined NPL in 2021 and her current research interests include the development of novel atmospheric pressure ion sources, the improved identification and localisation of biological analytes in biological samples, and applying mass spectrometry imaging to biological and synthetic systems. She focuses on the laser ablation, MALDI, DESI, Orbitrap and REIMS techniques. Additionally, she has an interest in unusual commercial projects, imaging unique samples and developing experiments to accommodate these.