Episode notes
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 Cambridge. Visit the Cavendish website and learn more abour our research and teaching, and how you could get involved! Share and join the conversation If you like this podcast, don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It…
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People doing Physics
Cavendish Laboratory · Tech & Science · English
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, technician
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E23 · 4 Jan 2024 · 40 min
Richard King: From Cambridge with Love
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. A former electronic engineer, his background was in circuit design and computing before he joined the Cavendish in 2008. With Richard, we talk about how Cambridge has changed over the years, what it’s like going from fast-paced industry to the…
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E22 · 7 Dec 2023 · 28 min
The power of saying yes with Emily Roe
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 geology, she shifted to a lab role at the University of Durham . And shifting, she has continued to do throughout her career, jumping from one city to the next, and between University and Industry, showing off her versatility and adaptability…
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E21 · 2 Nov 2023 · 35 min
The rise of the machine (learning) with Gareth Conduit
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 which he’s worked with companies such as Rolls Royce to apply software developed in the lab to the kinds of materials questions faced by industry. Today, we talk about how the joy of physics can come from breaking things down to understand how they…
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E20 · 5 Oct 2023 · 44 min
The joy of physics with Mete Atatüre
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 of the Cavendish Laboratory, his ground-breaking work in quantum optics and solid-state physics has earned him accolades and respect worldwide. His experimental research group investigates light-based quantum science to enable future quantum…
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E19 · 7 Sep 2023 · 36 min
Ain Bailey & Gemma Bale: Exploring the Intersection of Sound, Science, and Music
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 us in our studio are two incredible individuals who have embarked on a journey that brings together the realms of sound, physics, and human emotion. Ain Bailey is a composer and the second Cavendish Arts Science Fellow. Cavendish Arts Science…
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E18 · 6 Jul 2023 · 41 min
An open conversation with physics students, Misha de Fockert, Ming-Shau Liu and Armaan Shaikh
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 subject they might be studying when choosing to go to university. As we are welcoming hundreds of potential new students today and tomorrow for the University of Cambridge Open Days, we have invited three of our current undergraduate students to join…
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E17 · 1 Jun 2023 · 38 min
Replay: Malcolm Longair, the memory of the Cavendish Laboratory (episode 9)
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. We hope you enjoy! If you like this episode, don’t forget to rate it or leave a review on your favourite podcast app. Episode 9: With us this month is Prof. Malcolm Longair, CBE, FRS, FRSE (and Munroist). Born in Dundee, in 1941, Malcolm studied…
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E16 · 4 May 2023 · 35 min
Louise Shanahan and Noam Mouelle: balancing elite sports and a physics PhD
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 Mesoscopic and Optical Physics group, as part of the Winton programme for the physics of sustainability here at the Cavendish. Siting at the borders of physics and biochemistry, her work looks at nano diamonds and there use in measuring cells properties.…
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E15 · 6 Apr 2023 · 39 min
Athene Donald: Physics, a way to change the world
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, we’re joined by Professor Athene Donald, Emeritus of Experimental Physics at the Cavendish and Master of Churchill College Cambridge. Athene has had an illustrious research career in soft matter physics for which she has received numerous…
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E14 · 2 Mar 2023 · 35 min
Sandro Tacchella: an international journey through extragalactic astrophysics
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 pursued a degree in Physics and threaded a line between the “small” scale of planetary astrophysics and the statistical world of pure cosmology. He looks at the physics underpinning the formation of galaxies and black holes, hoping to understand how…
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