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Suzie Sheehy

(She/Her)
Associate Professor in Medical Accelerator Physics, The University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Suzie Sheehy is an accelerator physicist who specialises in novel particle accelerators and beam dynamics, with a current focus on medical applications. Her research group at The University of Melbourne investigates novel particle therapy accelerators and beam delivery systems, compact linear electron accelerators (X-band) and improving accelerator reliability in Low and Middle-Income countries (STELLA project) to address global health challenges. She also retains an active research role at the University of Oxford, where she is now Visiting Lecturer, focusing on intense hadron beams. She has held prestigious research fellowships from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 (Brunel Fellowship 2010-2013) and the Royal Society (University Research Fellowship, 2017-2022).

Dr. Sheehy is also an award-winning public speaker and science communicator, dedicated to sharing science beyond the academic community. Her 2018 TED talk on ‘The Case for Curiosity Driven Research’ has been viewed around 2 million times, and her first popular science book ‘The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed Our World’, has been published worldwide with 11 translations, selected as Times and Sunday Times Best Books of 2022, New Scientist Best Non-Fiction Books of 2022 and Waterstones Best Books of 2022.

Experience

  • 2022–present
    Visiting Lecturer, University of Oxford
  • 2022–present
    Associate Professor, University of Melbourne
  • 2018–2022
    Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Oxford
  • 2019–2021
    Senior Lecturer, University of Melbourne
  • 2016–2018
    Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Oxford
  • 2013–2016
    Senior Accelerator Physicist, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • 2010–2013
    1851 Research Fellow, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Education

  • 2010 
    University of Oxford, DPhil
  • 2006 
    University of Melbourne, Bachelor of Science (Hons)