 Hello, I am Jim Hebden and Professor of Biomedical Optics at the UCL Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering. My research is focused on the development of ways to image the brain by shining harmless amounts of light across the head. We're particularly interested in applying such methods to premature babies to identify those that may be vulnerable to brain injury, resulting from insufficient oxygen reaching the brain during or immediately following birth. I was a child when the Apollo missions landed on the moon, and this was a massive influence on my later choice to become a physicist. The Apollo mission required many thousands of physicists and engineers to create solutions to brand new technological problems, and this still inspires me today. Perhaps the medical physicist who had most influence on me during my early career was Professor Robert Kruger, then of the University of Utah, who took a chance on me by offering me two years of funding to explore or create any new area of medical imaging. It was a fantastic opportunity. The most exciting thing about medical physics is probably working alongside doctors and other health workers and appreciating how advances in medical physics can have a major impact on patients.