BLACK HOLES

This is Aman. He is an optometrist from Oxford who has taught at multiple universities around the UK. But after a few years of that, he got a bit bored and decided to get a PhD in black holes

Honestly, how much of a nerd do you consider yourself to be?
I don’t think I am a nerd? I am an optometrist and a physicist though.

We don’t know what is in black holes, so how did you pass?
I passed because I didn’t study what was in them, but what their effects were on the universe. The title of it was ‘Constraints on the power spectrum of primordial perturbations from small scale structure”.

Please explain.
I was looking at how many black holes could have formed at the Big Bang at the start of the universe and used telescopic data to eliminate models of how the universe evolved. Think of it like this: if you throw a pebble in a pond, you can look at the ripples (perturbations), infer what they have passed through and how they evolved (power spectrum) from the start (primordial), to the edge of the pond. Probabilistically, of course – because we’ve never seen black holes which then sets an upper limit as to how many there could be.

Do you have a girlfriend?
Yes and I married her. She’s definitely more nerdy than me. She’s a rocket scientist running a demonstration program developing hybrid aircraft and rocket engines for hypersonic transport and space travel.

Kewlest thing about optometry?
Changing lives. I volunteered in Ghana and Zambia providing free eye tests and glasses to thousands. I gave glasses to a nearly blind school-bus driver who kept crashing and didn’t know why – he didn’t realise he couldn’t see. I also gave glasses to orphans who had been abandoned because they were ‘blind’. They put on glasses, and wouldn’t stop hugging and thanking me, they were so happy.

You are 100% kewl AF Aman.
Thanks. I also made a baby, that is another kewl thing. And last year I won a men’s gingerbread baking competition in the local village. I was really proud of that.