The picture above shows Dr Arnau Rios (L) and Surrey Physics student Reece Cater (R) taken at the Unviersity of Barcelona last week. Reece is spending his year-long MPhys research placement out in Spain working with Dr Rios and his group on development of quantum computing algorithms to solve nuclear physics problems. Barcelona is one of the leading places in the world to do this research, benefitting from the combined expertise of people at the University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Supercomputer Centre. Reece is a couple of months into his placement, and learning a lot of new theory taking him beyond what he has learned so far in his undergraduate course at Surrey, getting read to perform some original research as the year goes on.

As part of the MPhys Research Year, a member of University of Surrey staff goes out to visit to keep up with the project, to ensure things are going okay from all points of view, and to cement the links with the research partners. I was lucky enough to be the visitor for this trip, and I look forward to seeing how the year progresses.