Hello! I’m Clara and I’m a particle physicist and science communicator.
A quick career history: I completed my PhD at Manchester in the UK working on a new type of pixel detector for the ATLAS experiment at CERN. I then went to work at LAL in Orsay, France, and lived in Paris for three years, continuing my work on pixel detectors for the ATLAS upgrade, and also starting analysis of the properties of the Higgs boson. next, I moved to the University of Göttingen in Germany to study the top quark, the heaviest known particle. Now, I’m in Nijmegen in the Netherlands at Radboud University as an Excellence Initiative Fellow. I’m continuing to investigate the top quark, but also starting to search for dark matter using machine learning algorithms.
I am very passionate about science communication, and a keen advocate of diversity, equity and inclusion in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields. I’m a member of the TIGER in STEMM group. I am also a photographer and long-distance runner.
This blog is a reflection of my work, interests and personality, but to help you navigate, I’ve sorted the posts into different sections. If you’re here for the science, you can check out posts on the science section; if you’re more interested in some of the outreach I do, then you can check out the link there; for my photography and film-making work, check out photography/video; if you’re interested in where I’ve been travelling to, there’s a section for that; or if you prefer a mix (like me!) you can explore the whole blog. For photos from my academic nomadic travels, check out the gallery.
If you’re on Twitter, you can also follow me in 280 characters or fewer, here. And I’m starting to post more on Instagram, here.
If you like what I do and would like to keep me caffeinated so I produce more, you can buy me a coffee with the link below.
Clara Nellist 
I really want work in Cern. But i don’t know how I start to work and study. Which objects should I study? I am 17 years old. I am Turkish. I am waiting your answer.
Hello, Efe.
It’s great that you’re enthusiastic about working at CERN. If you’re wanting to be a physicist here, you’ll need to study physics and maths at school, and continue with physics at university. There are also positions for engineers and computer scientists (as well as many vital support staff who keep everything and everyone running!) so it depends what interests you most.
In the long term, the good news for you is that Turkey recently became an associate member of CERN, meaning you could one day be a staff member at CERN. Otherwise, most scientists work for Universities and are attached to one of the experiments (such as ATLAS or CMS).
If you’d like to chat directly to physicists at CERN, you could organise a virtual visit to the ATLAS experiment for your school (http://atlas-live-virtual-visit.web.cern.ch/atlas-live-virtual-visit/) which would also look good on a university application.
Let me know if you would like more information.
Clara
I am thankful for answering me. I am thinking about things you told.
Have a good day.
Can you give me more information about the ATLAS experiment?
You can find information about the ATLAS experiment on the website, here: http://atlas.cern/discover/about .
Thank you for helping me
Hi Clara,
Just saw your presentation in TEDx AUBG (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIe-ewyzkvs). You have explained the complicated things in a very simple manner. Also the presentation was very very interactive. I want to know how can I make a similar type of presentation or which software can be used for such presentations. Please let me know on my mail id: vineetrathore@gmail.com
Hi Vineet. Thanks for the nice feedback about the presentation! I made it with Prezi and they have a free version you can use to try it out and use with their logo on. If you want presentations without their logo on, then you have to pay a subscription.