by Ruba Alabed
Our interviewer, Ruba Alabed, speaks with Hugo Decitre: 5th year MPhys student and the current School President of Physics, discussing his work as an experimental physicist, job as president, and general time at St Andrews- along with some fun facts and hobbies! [Date: 10/02/2025)
Ruba: Hello, I am here today with Hugo Decitre, a 5th year physics student who is our current president of physics.
So you’re in your 5th year. Are you in your master’s right now or are you doing a PhD?
I am a master’s student in experimental physics.
What are you specialized in?
I am currently working on a project with the low temperature research groups in the university, specifically to do with condensed matter research which is my main topic of interest. Along with other PhD students I’ve also worked with some professors which has been fun.
What first got you into physics?
It wasn’t until high school actually, when my teacher, Gary McKnight, made me love physics; he’s a great guy. If you have a good teacher, it changes a lot sometimes.
Did you have any other prospects in mind before that?
No not really. I don’t think I’ve ever known what I want to do, I still don’t really know what I want to do. I liked sciences in general, I was quite into chemistry, I thought I would enjoy chemistry which I did do at the same time as physics but it turns out I just enjoyed physics a lot more.
You had a double major at first you mean?
Well in in high school I did higher levels, so I did IB and my higher levels were math, chemistry, and physics, and so I did at the same time just as much chemistry as physics but I just liked physics a lot more.
I was wondering, do you have any particular books, or maybe documentaries or movies, related to physics that you enjoy? It could be non-physics related as well.
I’ve not read so much in recent years. I like crime-thriller-police-detective novels and like random sorts of nonfiction like psychology and things like that; I don’t think I have one book which inspired me to do my degree.
Do you have specific movies that you enjoy the most?
I would say comedies… yeah comedies. My family growing up we watched a lot of comedies because basically my dad can’t handle sad things too much. I don’t really like if something’s really dramatic – I get too invested, and then it’s a bit soul crushing – like once a year it’s okay.
Have you watched The Big Bang theory, for example?
I haven’t no. I’m not a big sitcom person.
Oh, okay. So when you say comedies, it’s not TV shows?
No it’s just movies. So I’m French, as my name probably indicates, and I just used to watch a lot of French comedies growing up.
Where in France are you from, exactly?
I’m from central Paris.
This is a random question, but because you are French: do you have a favorite pastry?
I like many pastries, I like food a lot. Favorite pastry- maybe the chouquette, but also a really good croissant.
Have you ever made any sort of pastries? Do you have a passion for cooking?
So I like cooking a lot, I can make a few things, but I prefer cooking to baking; I don’t think I’m an artist but it [cooking] is a more artistic thing.
What made you become the president here?
So I actually ran for the election twice as you may or may not know, because I ran for the normal election, which is going to happen soon, which happened last year and actually someone who’s definitely better than me won. She was a great president, but she had to stand down for personal reasons, and so they ran a bi-election and I ran again and I won that time. I was class representative the year before and I really enjoyed being part of that. I really enjoyed the environment we have in our school and how friendly the lecturers are.
I also enjoyed trying to voice what students feel isn’t maybe so optimal and I like being part of the discussion. It’s really nice and everybody’s pretty receptive; I don’t think that’s the case in every school — I’ve heard of schools where staff can be quite old-fashioned — but I think we do pretty well in physics so it’s quite a nice environment. I enjoyed the class representative job, I saw the president at the time, a friend of mine, and I was like “That looks kind of like a fun thing to do!”. So, I ended up here kind of randomly, I suppose.
You seem to have enjoyed it; you speak of it passionately, which is good. Does it get stressful at times?
Yeah, so now we’re in my second semester of doing it so I kind of know what’s happening. I came in kind of midway through the semester because of what I said about the past election, so I wouldn’t say that was stressful but there was just quite a bit to do because I was catching up on a couple of things, and this happened to be the year where we had something called the “University Review of Learning and Teaching”, the “URLT”, which happens every six years. It involved a few extra things to do in terms of representing the student voice to the panel that reviews the quality of learning and teaching in our school.
We have two student-staff council meetings a semester, typically weeks 4 and 9, and those are student-led. I technically chair them so they’re kind of our thing but there’s a lot of staff there. All the class representatives are there and we discuss feedback from the students and broader issues that have come. Module-specific feedback is fed to staff from the class reps kind of separately and so there’s a bit more prep work which is actually [going on] now. The class reps do a lot of work in terms of preparing feedback forms and then analyzing them; I help them out here and there. Now it’s the third time around and I feel more prepared, but the first couple times it was quite intense, not necessarily stressful. There’s quite a bit of things to do in terms of preparing an agenda and things like that, but it’s not crazy stressful, I think.”
It seems very interesting, but you would have to be a good public speaker, and you’d have to have confidence as well. How did you feel when you first started as class representative?
Yeah I understand it is a little bit scary, especially if it’s people you know. I think it depends on the personality a lot and I think that’s something I’m pretty fine with. I’m very happy speaking in public. It’s also a good way to practice that, because it is a useful skill.
Other than when you’re working on your masters or doing anything for president, what do you enjoy doing as a hobby?
I’ve not had so many hobbies over the past few years, especially since like 2-3 years of honours and masters. It’s not that you don’t have time, I think if you’re organized you definitely have time, plenty of people do sports and that, but I’ve kind of enjoyed spending a fair amount of time doing physics and then the rest just relaxing really. I see friends; probably my biggest hobby is going to the pub and just playing some cards with my friends.
Do you have a favorite drink and favorite card game?
Favorite drink is hard. There are many, but I think in this setting I would probably have some kind of beer, maybe Guinness, or an Aperol on a sunny day. For card game, I really loved card games growing up as a kid but with my housemate I play a game called cribbage.
Interesting, what does that entail?
It’s like an old man’s English card game. It’s been a game for a long time in the UK; I think it’s gone out of popularity. It’s a two player card game – it’s nice and chill, after lunch we go and play together.
Okay this is sort of an interesting question: is there any invention that you would love to exist that can’t exist right now, because of limitations in physics?”
That’s interesting, so on a realistic scale? I’m sure I could come up with something a bit fantastic and grandiose but the thing that came to my mind is one of the areas I’m kind of interested in: green energy and sustainability. I’ve done a tiny bit of work in the university with one of the energy harvesting research groups. We research efficient solar cells that are also eco-friendly in terms of material used to build them. Currently, it’s not really something we have just yet, which is not ideal so I guess that’s one thing I would like.
Do you have a specific place you would like to go to if you could- anywhere in the entire universe?
No, I really don’t care, you know. I’m not at all a space type of person; it always scares me. I would say there’s a bit too much unknown… like even the idea of being on a rocket [scares me].
Fair enough, but how you feel about going in a submarine for example? Would that be worse for you?
That’s a good question. I probably wouldn’t love that. I’ve been diving, and that was okay.
Oh you do diving?
Yeah, so I enjoy that a lot actually, but being in a hole and being submerged… I could do it probably but that would kind of freak me out I think.
Would it freak you out less than a rocket?
Yeah… the idea of leaving the earth is terrifying.
I’m gonna ask you a bit more about diving ‘cause that’s really interesting to me. Do you go properly deep?
I free dive and scuba dive. So the most basic qualification you get is 16 meters down and then the next one you can go like 30 or 35 meters down, so that’s about as deep as I’ve been.
What would be your dream thing to see right in front of you? It could be an animal or anything else.
I would be curious to see a shark, I’d be terrified probably if it was any bigger than my leg.
Do you have any favorite physicists or scientists?
That’s a great question. I think I like a lot in general. I like the idea of a physicist; they’re cool people. I think they’re always kind of wacky people. I like Feynman and he does have quite a funny biography – it’s a funny book to read. I like many of them. I think reading their Wikipedia pages is always quite fun.
Do you have a favorite theory or specific equation? For example, my favorite trigonometric function is the cosine; for no reason, it just is.
I get you because, I think mine used to be the sine in highschool and I switched. Now I’m a cosine person- it’s just, it’s more professional somehow. Hmm do I have a favorite equation? If you do condensed matter physics you do something called the tight binding model which is a way of modeling solids and I would say that’s quite a cool method. There’s always the Schrödinger equation, it’s quite a pretty one.. but I don’t think I like anything specific.
I would say I like algebra and I like any question in algebra when you see something in the math and it tells you something about real life behavior. When I ask myself “What does this equation tell me?” and I understand what it’s telling me, then I think that’s nice.
Do you have any wild theories to do with physics that you believe? For example, what are your thoughts on the multiverse theory?
I’m probably a bit boring and not creative in that sense. It’s not something I’ve thought about a lot. I kind of just enjoy studying physics and new discoveries. The current theories that are trying to bridge general relativity and quantum mechanics are way beyond my pay grade and so I feel a bit underqualified.
Do you think you can remember over the last few years of your studies a favorite topic that you learned here in physics?
I think the one that I really enjoy right now is condensed matter. It’s something you don’t do really, and [that ] you don’t know about until 4th year. Before that, I really liked classical mechanics. Before that, I’d kind of fallen out of love with physics a little bit – I just wasn’t enjoying it so much.
What do you hope to do with this in the future? It’s quite a daunting question but do you have a specific thing?
I don’t really know… that is kind of the question now because I’m not graduating in very long!
I am wondering whether I would want to stay in physics because I do really enjoy it and it’s hard to do the kind of theoretical physics I enjoy outside of academia. Otherwise, I would want to do some kind of science related job, probably in the energy industry.
Is there anything you think you would diverge into, like something completely different?
I don’t think so. I think I could enjoy a lot of things probably. I find a lot of things can be interesting but I don’t have anything that I think of… it’s not like I want to open an ice cream truck. I’d be curious about running a restaurant to be honest. I enjoy cooking but I think that’s just a stressful job and you’re asking for low pay, which is probably the same as an academic to be honest.
Do you watch any cooking shows?
I haven’t in a while I would say probably since I started university, but I used to love watching cooking shows. I mean I love Gordon Ramsay’s shows I’ve watched many of them- or anything really, I do like cooking videos.
What meals do you make the most during university, because you have to manage time as well?
Yeah, that’s right. I don’t make involved meals that often these days. Sometimes I’ll cook a simple thing but there’s some weeks where I just eat bread and cheese. Otherwise, I’ve been making a pasta dish I quite enjoy with bacon, cream and cheese. It’s really nice, I get home and I just make a massive pasta dish and I just eat it all and its quite nice.”
Rapid Fire:
- Would you rather be locked in a room with a flat earther or with someone who believes that we are the center of everything and nothing else exists?”
Probably a flat earther, because you could probably eventually reason with the flat earther. I think somehow someone who believes we’re the center of everything would be more obnoxious. - Are there any fun facts about yourself you’d like to give, or do you have a certain maybe weird talent?
I have this funny one: I have great memory of where the bins are in town. So, if I need to throw something away, I can always kind of remember where the nearest bin is. It’s kind of funny but it’s useful because I’m always in town and need to throw something away so that’s I guess that’s a fun fact. - What’s your favorite restaurant or café in town?
[Favourite] café is Taste; they make great coffee and it’s cheaper than any place you can go, and they make tremendous croissants. Otherwise, I really like Little Italy or Tanin. I wish there was a nice Japanese or Lebanese restaurant but there isn’t. - Do you have any specific daily habits that help you get through the day?
Coffee, but not in a bad way. I enjoy the taste of coffee. I really like a nice latte so I get one or two a day and that just makes me quite happy. I’m just kind of happy to come into physics, that also helps me get up in the morning- I just like talking with the people here, it’s very chill. - Any advice you would give yourself or anyone looking to go on a similar path that you did (like becoming a class rep, school president etc.)?
I think it’s just a really fun thing to do. For being class rep, I would say just give it a go if you want it. It’s kind of scary running for elections either for class rep or president, because the idea of losing can be pretty hard. In a way, you’re against your classmates, but it’s pretty fun.
Within physics or within anything, just get to know the staff well. The staff are very friendly and very chill. I think I only learned that a bit too late, probably because I came on during COVID. It’s always crazy to talk to most members of staff about anything. We have pints with professors sometimes. Hopefully I will organize for that in a couple weeks, so I think we’re just quite friendly and it’s quite a nice experience actually. [Future note: he did indeed organize another “Pints with Professors”] - That’s good. So you seem to have relaxed a bit since coming here, maybe a bit intimidated in the beginning, but then you got used to it.
I think so; I don’t think I’ve ever had any academic stress properly.. I’ve actually grown into that a bit more. I probably used to not have enough of that [stress]. I was probably a bit too laid back, so when you transition from 2nd to 3rd year it is kind of a steep transition. There’s a lot more work and it’s a bit harder, which is fine if you’re organized – it’s not easy but it’s fine. But I was very disorganized, so I guess “be organized” is probably a piece of advice. I think I feel more comfortable.
I think I used to be pretty scared at the idea of coming into the building, probably because I started in a period where we still had online lectures. Coming to lectures, I think, is actually pretty good; but I think now the first years do come to lectures a lot, and second years as well. So, I think that’s a really important part actually – I think that’s like a night and day difference.”
