Lewis Wright

Position and role within Covesion

I am a Process Engineer. My main role is to standardise products and processes that come from product development so they can be adopted by us as part of our everyday procedures. One of the exciting things about working at Covesion is that product development is inherently linked and continually feeding the commercial side of the business with new and exciting products and more efficient processes.  This makes it not only an interesting place to work but means that our customers benefit from a continual throughput of new technologies and ideas.

What are your main areas of expertise?

My undergraduate degree at Loughborough was a science foundation year followed by a Batchelors in Physics. I stayed at Loughborough to do my PhD in thin film photovoltaics, specifically earth-abundant absorbers like kesterites.  Our group was based in the Electrical Engineering department because we generated electricity, but my work was a heavy mix of materials science, device physics, and some chemistry.

This materials deposition and characterisation experience is generally useful at Covesion, but particularly as I am experienced with the processes used to produce waveguides.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I think the reason I like Physics is the idea of being able to predict what a system will do under a set of operating conditions. For solid state devices, like solar cells and waveguides, there are no moving parts and so all the performance comes from light interacting with matter. Performance can be incredibly sensitive to processing conditions, and so to know which dials to turn to get the desired result feels like a very impressive and powerful skill to have.

I did an experimental PhD to develop that skillset, which I loved because of the research freedom. However, at times academia can be painfully slow, so I wanted to find that same engagement but where the pace and drive for a turnaround is a little more urgent. I definitely think I benefit from having deadlines.

What has been your career highlight so far?

As this is my first permanent job following my PhD, I think my highlight is writing my thesis. I have never had to write so extensively for such a prolonged period of time, and each round of revisions was a milestone in itself! There is never a good time for a global pandemic, but being state-mandated to stay indoors for months at a time was an excellent catalyst to get some serious writing done.

What or who inspires you?

I remember enjoying science in primary school so think I would have always been drawn towards it, but I had an excellent Physics teacher in secondary school that made lessons very engaging.

In my adult life, the person who has had the biggest impact on me is Professor Jordan B. Peterson. I’ve watched easily 100 hours of his lectures on various topics, and his mantra to ‘tidy your room’ is a single sentence that represents a whole journey in your life about getting your act together and being a productive member of society. I find him to be an excellent speaker who freely dispenses pearls of wisdom.

What do you do outside of work?

The move to Southampton has taken up a lot of my time recently, but I am starting to explore the area. Day-to-day I like to gym, swim when I can, and evenings I am learning to cook. I have a few Python programming projects in mind if I can commit the time, but also want to commit more time to my VR headset (which was a thesis submission present to myself!)

Meet the other members of the team