Alumni from Oxford's Department of Physics follow a wide variety of career paths; here, we hear from alumnus Dali Ma about where physics took him...
I studied physics and philosophy (MPhysPhil) at Oxford from 2005 to 2009 at Exeter College. I am currently running two start-ups in southern California: one is a full-service digital marketing agency Dali Marketing, and the other, a fashion photography studio Dali Ma Photography.
The Department of Physics at Oxford was my first introduction to the world outside my home country, China. As a world-leading centre for physics, Oxford’s Department of Physics gave me the opportunity to not only learn from the best, but also apply what I have learned to various fields and endeavours that I was to later take on. The combination of physics and philosophy provided a great balance of quantitative and qualitative thinking which I found profoundly useful in my later careers.
After graduating from Oxford, I took on different roles, until I had gained enough confidence and experience to start my own ventures. I founded two start-ups in southern California, with one focusing on digital marketing, helping companies establish their online presence and influence via websites, search engines, content, email and social media; the other focusing on fashion photography, which has been featured in magazines like Vogue, L’Officiel and Maxim.