Joshua McCann

I’m  a PhD student with Ozgrav, based at the University of Western Australia (UWA),  studying the suppression of low frequency seismic noise in advanced gravitational wave detectors.

I became interested in science and engineering from a young age, building home projects with my dad. However, I didn’t take the typical academic route to where I am now. While in my final years of high school, I couldn’t concentrate and be efficient in class.  So, I decided to leave school and become an electrician. I did this for 6 years, in which time I was lucky enough to work around the world on large ships. I then started working directly with the engineers for the ships. This spurred me to enrol into university where I studied electrical and control systems engineering. During my undergraduate degree, I developed a strong interest in physics (as I was not always satisfied with the approximated equations used in engineering) and as a result, added it to my studies
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Once I graduated, I began working as a control systems engineer for a ship manufacturing company. Two years into this role, I found myself looking for the next challenge. I was lucky enough to find an advertisement for PhD students with the UWA Gravity Group which allowed me to combine my love of space and physics with my engineering skills. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my PhD so far, and I’m excited to see where my career goes from here.

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