As fascinating as physics can be, it can also seem very abstract, but behind each experiment and discovery stands a real person trying to understand the universe. Join us at the Cavendish Laboratory on the first Thursday of every month as we get up close and personal with the researchers, technicians, students, teachers, and people that are the beating heart of Cambridge University’s Physics department. Each episode also covers the most exciting and up-to-date physics news coming out of our ...
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Replay: A tour of the Cavendish's new home with Andy Parker
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The team is taking a short break this summer and will be back in September with a plethora of new guests. To help you wait, we’ve selected a couple of previous episodes we wanted to share again with you. This month, we go back to the Ray Dolby Centre for a tour of what was, at the time of recording in January 2023, still very much a building site. …
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Replay: An open conversation with physics students
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Hello dear listeners. The team of People doing Physics is taking a short break this summer and will be back in September with new guests and more physics chats. To help you wait, we’ve selected a couple of previous episodes we wanted to share again with you. We start with our panel episode with three Undergraduate students, which comes out just as …
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Pushing boundaries with Lisa Jardine-Wright
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We are joined by Dr Lisa Jardine-Wright, OBE; Director of Isaac Physics, Director of Studies for Physics at Churchill College, and Vice-President for Education and Skills at the Institute of Physics. An astrophysicist by training, Lisa studied Natural Sciences and for a Master’s Degree in Physics at Trinity College in Cambridge, before completing h…
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Simone Eizagirre Barker: Taking research to the world
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This month on People Doing Physics, we have a voice very familiar to listeners; Simone Eizagirre Barker, PhD student in the Quantum Optical Materials and Systems group at the Cavendish. Following a winding path into Optical Physics, Simone previously dipped her toes into Nanotechnology in the Cavendish’ NanoDTC, and Chemical Physics at the Universi…
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This month we are delighted to welcome Oleg Brandt, a Professor of Experimental Physics in the High Energy Physics group of the Cavendish. Oleg’s journey into the world of particle physics is both captivating and enlightening. From his early days inspired by a remarkable physics teacher directly followed by a rocky start at University, to a transfo…
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This episode is also available in video format on our YouTube channel - check it out! Today’s format is a little different to our usual episodes, as we’ve invited four Cavendish alumni for a panel discussion about all things physics and career development. They’ll tell us about what they learnt at the Cavendish, their natural sciences and physics b…
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Eloy de Lera Acedo: Tiny signals, big ambitions
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Have you ever looked at the sky at night and wondered about the mysteries of the universe? When most of us are just looking at those bright stars in awe, our guest today would be searching for tiny, minuscule signals that would help unlock the mysteries of the so-called Cosmic Dawn, when the universe went from dark to bright. Eloy de Lera Acedo is …
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Welcome back to a world of People Doing Physics! For this first episode of 2024, let us introduce you to Richard King, the Undergraduate Lab Manager at the Cavendish Laboratory. Richard oversees the practical side of the undergraduate physics course, managing the team that designs, develops, and deploys lecture demos and undergraduate experiments. …
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Our guest today is Emily Roe, who has recently joined us from industry to start a new role as Senior Research Laboratory Technician. Contrary to many of our previous guests, Physics is actually not her first love. What Emily was really interested in as a young mind, was geology. But it turns out field trips were not her thing, so after a degree in …
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The rise of the machine (learning) with Gareth Conduit
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Today we’re joined by Dr Gareth Conduit. Gareth is a lecturer at Gonville and Caius College and Royal Society Research Fellow here at the cavendish Laboratory. He leads a research group focused on developing machine learning methods for understanding and designing new materials and chemicals. In 2017, he co-founded the startup Intellegens, through …
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Long silver hair in a ponytail, a pair of Converse All Star and a Grateful Dead t-shirt… The guest sitting opposite us today in the studio is not your average Cambridge academic. But don't be fooled by his relaxed demeanour; Professor Mete Atatüre is a serious trailblazer in his field. Co-founder of the Atomic, Mesoscopic and Optical Physics Group …
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Ain Bailey & Gemma Bale: Exploring the Intersection of Sound, Science, and Music
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you for your time. Here’s a question for you dear listener. What’s the link between music and physics? What is the sound of physics? Today we're diving into a fascinating world where art, science, and music intersect. Joining…
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The team is taking a short break and will be back in September with new guests and more physics chats. Stay tuned! While you wait, why not taking 2 minutes to answer a few questions about the podcast and help us get better? People Doing Physics is a podcast produced by the Cavendish Laboratory, the Department of Physics at the University of Cambrid…
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An open conversation with physics students, Misha de Fockert, Ming-Shau Liu and Armaan Shaikh
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you. This is July and the streets of Cambridge burst with sun and excitement as students let a communal sigh of relief now that the academic year is over. This is July, and the time for future students to think about what sub…
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Replay: Malcolm Longair, the memory of the Cavendish Laboratory (episode 9)
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On 16th June, the Cavendish Laboratory will be celebrating its 149th anniversary! To mark this occasion, we wanted to replay one of our previous episodes with one of our longest standing member of staff, Malcolm Longair. Malcolm is the memory of the Department, and his stories are fascinating, so let's jump back in with Simone, Jacob and our guest.…
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Louise Shanahan and Noam Mouelle: balancing elite sports and a physics PhD
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you for your time. Today we're joined by two physicists who have not only distinguished themselves in the sciences but risen to the top of their sporting fields as well. Louise Shanahan is a PhD student in the Atomic Mesoscop…
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Athene Donald: Physics, a way to change the world
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you for your time. We are very excited to present a very special episode this month. The podcast has been recorded with a live audience in the Pippard lecture theatre during the Cavendish Festival. For this special episode, w…
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Sandro Tacchella: an international journey through extragalactic astrophysics
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you for your time. Joining us this month is Dr Sandro Tacchella, Assistant Professor in Extragalactic Astrophysics at the Cavendish and the nearby Kavli Institute for Cosmology. Inspired by astronomy at a young age, Sandro pu…
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A tour of the Cavendish's new home with Andy Parker
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Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you for your time. This is episode 13 of People Doing Physics, the podcast from the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. This month marks our first birthday! One year, 12 guests, each one looking into their ve…
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Intro We’re joined today by Prof. Sarah Bohndiek, Professor of Biomedical Physics at the Cavendish Laboratory, Group Leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, and Fellow of Corpus Christi College. Born in Greenwich, Sarah found an early enthusiasm for science and went on to study Natural Sciences as an undergraduate student at Cambridge…
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Intro We’re joined today by a familiar voice, Dr Paolo Molignini. Paolo will be leaving us soon, so this month we thought we would give a little insight into one of the people behind the podcast. Paolo is a postdoctoral research associate in the Theory of Condensed Matter group here at the Cavendish, bringing together elements of nonequilibrium phy…
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Intro Joining us this month is Dr Tiffany Harte, senior research associate in the group of Prof. Ulrich Schneider here at the Cavendish Laboratory. Tiffany is an experimental physicist who works with ultracold atomic systems. These are gases of neutral elements like Rubidium or Lithium which are cooled down to incredibly low temperatures and used t…
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Intro With us this month is Prof. Malcolm Longair, CBE, FRS, FRSE (and Munroist). Born in Dundee, in 1941, Malcolm studied Electronic Physics at what is now the University of Dundee, but was then part of St Andrews. After this, he came down south to the Cavendish, where he completed his PhD as part of the Radio Astronomy Group, supervised by Martin…
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Intro Joining us this month is Dr Diana Fusco, lecturer in biological physics here at the Cavendish Laboratory. Diana is an amazing example of what it means to have an interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven career. Her scientific journey started at the University of Milan, where as an undergraduate, she focused mainly on theoretical and statistical…
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Intro Joining us this month is Melanie Tribble, the Cleanroom Manager for the Cavendish Laboratory. For the last three decades, she has kept the cleanrooms of the Cavendish up and running, going from working with one research group to providing support for the entire laboratory and external companies – ensuring that the ultra-clean environment need…
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Intro Our guest this month is Joanna Piotrowska, a PhD student looking at galaxy formation and evolution in the group of Prof. Roberto Maiolino. By using a mix of observational cosmology and numerical simulations, Joanna is studying how supermassive black holes – the giant black holes thought to reside at the center of every galaxy – can influence …
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This month, our guest is Stuart Macpherson, Post-doctoral researcher in experimental opto-electronics in the Stranks Lab at the Department of Physics. Stuart’s research focuses on understanding the physics of solar photovoltaics based on perovskite compound, one of the fastest advancing solar technologies of today. Stuart is also the founder of Sus…
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This month our guest is Tom Sharp, group technician for the Optoelectronics research group here at the Department of Physics, where his day to day involves working closely with scientists to maintain and troubleshoot equipment and ensure a smooth running of the laboratories and facilities. Tom was always drawn to mechanical work growing up, and joi…
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We’re doing things a bit differently this month, welcoming not one but two guests in this episode. Suchitra Sebastian is a professor of Physics at the Cavendish, but like cats, she had more than a few lives before becoming a world-class scientist. And like cats, she moves gracefully between very different worlds. It took time and a few twists and t…
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Our guest this month is Tina Potter, Professor of High Energy Physics at the Cavendish and expert in the particle physics Beyond the Standard Model. Tina developed a passion for physics at a young age and has always been drawn to big, fundamental questions about the nature of our reality: what is the universe made of? How do its constituents behave…
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Our guest this month is LOUISE HIRST, Assistant Professor of Physics, and specialist of the development of advanced, high efficiency photovoltaics for space applications like powering satellites and exploring space. As a teenager and young adult, she contemplated a dual career in music and science, but knew she could not do both so finally decided …
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People Doing Physics is a new podcast from the Cavendish Laboratory (at the University of Cambridge) exploring the personal side of physics. Our first episode launches on 3rd February 2022. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! Follow and connect with the show on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics. For more details and epi…
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