Piper Fowler-Wright

Toggle Dark Mode

About Me

I have a background in theoretical physics and applied mathematics, having taken a dual honours degree in the subjects at the University of Birmingham from 2015-2019 as well as the Cambridge Part III course. Following this, I completed a PhD in theoretical physics in the Keeling & Lovett groups at the University of St Andrews, finishing early 2024. I then moved to California for a postdoctoral position in the Yuen-Zhou theoretical chemistry group at UC San Diego, before returning to the UK in Spring 2025 where I now work as a Research Software Engineer at the Rosalind Franklin Institute near Harwell, Oxford.

Contact

The best way to get in touch with me is via my institutional email, piper.fowler-wright@rfi.ac.uk.

Research and interests

My PhD and postdoctoral research focused on modelling organic polariton physics using methods based on an established approach known as mean-field theory, as well more general methods for open quantum systems. During this time I developed a strong interest in Linux, open source software for science, and computing education for researchers, topics I'm still passionate about today. In my free time I enjoy tinkering with a homelab running TrueNAS SCALE and long distance cycling—you can read more about that below!

Publications

Please see my Google Scholar profile.

Thesis

My PhD thesis Mean-field and cumulant approaches to modelling organic polariton physics is available on the St Andrews Research Repository as well as arXiv. I'll aim to keep the arXiv version updated, and note changes or errata here.

Linux system administration and software carpentry

I currently hold a Linux Professional Institute LPIC-1 qualification for the deployment and administration of Linux systems and networks—get in touch if you want to know more. You may also like to have a look at the Udemy Course I run for the certification. I typically have a number of discount or free course codes to give out, so please do ask if you would like access!

I am also a certified instructor for The Carpentries community and regularly taught at workshops in St Andrews. A list of upcoming workshops is available on The Carpentries website as well as lesson material.

Cycling

The following are a few of many adventures...

Midnight Sun Randonée 2025

A 1,200 km bike ride around North Sweden and the Arctic Circle around midsummers, you can read about the experience of riding in 24 hour daylight conditions with my friend Richard here. Scandinavia, I will be back!

California 2024-2025

Whilst as UCSD in San Diego I explored the Southern counties of California: from the Imperial desert in the East to the Santa Barbara coastline further North West, and of course the Santa Ana mountains in between! I put together a selection of photos from my trips, conducted over many weekends and public holidays, into a small photobook; you can view a digital copy here.

California's Interstates

Some Interstates in California have sections on which it is permitted to cycle when there is no alternate route. However, there is no convenient source to find out where these are. I made an interactive map detailing the sections I have ridden or learnt about on an Contributions are welcomed.

SUCH 2023

My first Swiss adventure was the fourth edition of the Swiss Ultracycling Challenge or SUCH, a 1,000km free-route bike race around the cantons of Switzerland. Follow this link for a full ride report with photos. It's a good 'un!

Colorado 2023

In June 2023 I did a short cycling tour of the Colorado Rocky Mountains off the back of a research conference I attended at the Telluride Science & Innovation Center. The route and a diary entries from each day of the tour may be found on this page.

Edinburgh-Munich-Edinburgh 2022

In September 2022 I cycled to Munich and back to attend a research conference, Molecular Polaritonics. You can find a summary of the route and a collection of my notes from each day's riding here. A a short article on my adventure was also published in issue 159 (Spring 2023) of Arrivée, the magazine for Audax UK members.

Fife 2020

Using the heatmap layer from Google's visualisation library and a bit of ImageMagick, I created a timelapse of the gpx data from my first 30 days in Fife: Get some popcorn!

Have an annual distance goal? You can use this simple calculator to work out how much you need to cover each month, week or day.

Lecture Notes

National 5 Physics (2022-2023)

Part III Mathematics (2019-2020)

Seminars

Part III Seminar Series (2019-2020)

Also on the web