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 we are about to welcome once again hundreds of potential new students for the University of Cambridge Open Days. This episode was recorded in June 2023, with Misha de Fockert and Armaan Shaikh, who were just finishing their 2nd year, and Ming-Shau Li ..read more

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 her PhD at the Institute of Astronomy just over the road from the Cavendish. While there, she became involved in the Institute’s outreach activities, contributing to the first Cambridge Festivals and the regular Public Open Evenings, before moving on ..read more

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 University of Edinburgh.  Her interdisciplinary background builds on her fascination for figuring out how the world works, whether looking at quantum systems or how to structure the perfect argument. Outside of science, Simone has been involved in stude ..read more

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 transformative experience abroad and a few more pivotal moments along the way, Oleg's insatiable curiosity for the fundamental mysteries of nature and his passion for teaching has led him to Cambridge where he now teaches the next generations of physicists ..read more

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 background, as well as their doctoral research in physics, shaped their careers and brought them to where they are today. We’re joined by Aswathy Girija, commissioning editor at the Institute of Physics, Professor Kerstin Göpfrich, group leader at the ..read more

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 an Associate Professor of Radio Cosmology and the head of the Radio Astronomy and Cosmology research group. His background in engineering and thirst of learning about the big science questions have led him to the Cavendish where he is invol ..read more

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 sedate ..read more

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 skills i ..read more

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 w ..read more

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 in ..read more