Today on People Doing Physics, we’re delighted to welcome Charlotte Simmonds, an astronomer with an incredible journey and a woman on a quest.

Of all the guests we had the pleasure to welcome here, Charlotte stands out as one of the most determined, driven by an unshakable fascination for the universe, and our place within it. If astronomy was always her end goal, she first studied and started her career as a music teacher. But when the time was right, she finally embraced her first love and passion and navigated her way through the various challenges that academia invariably presents.

Now a postdoc in the Galaxy Formation and Evolution Group at the Cavendish, it looks like she’s found her rightful place in the universe and is already preparing for her next move.

With Charlotte, we’ll talk about taking chances, the importance of representations in science and her efforts to demonstrate that no matter who you are and how different you may be, there’s a place for you in science if you want it…

• Details on Charlotte's research are on the Galaxy Formation and Evolution Group website.
• Watch one of Charlotte's talk: "Unveiling the Mysteries of the Early Universe with JWST", part of the Cambridge Physics Centre lecture series
• To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested in joining us or studying with us, go to the Cavendish website.

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Hosts: Charlie Walker and Vanessa Bismuth

Recording and editing: Chris Brock

This episode was first published in May 2024

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 student magazines, debating clubs, improv theatre, and podcasts, most notably (in our opinion) as one of the founding members of this very podcast. She also produces a fortnightly segment for Basque public broadcast radio’s Faktoria Magazina.

In this episode, Simone talks about finding her way through a multi-disciplinary career in science, the importance of communication, and how to publish your first academic paper at the age of 16...

• Simone’s group and research are on the Quantum Cambridge website.
• To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested in joining us or studying with us, go to the Cavendish website.

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Hosts: Jacob Butler and Vanessa Bismuth

Recording and editing: Chris Brock

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 world of the university, the processes involved in setting up practical work for hundreds of undergraduates, and what exactly he was doing wandering around Costa Rica with photographs of old airfields last year.

• To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested in joining us or studying with us, go to the Cavendish website.

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey! Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you.
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Host: Jacob Butler
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

This month, our guest is Dr Sam Gregson, better known as YouTube’s Bad Boy of Science. Formerly a Cavendish particle physicist working on the LHCb experiment at CERN, Sam found that he enjoyed finding ways to engage non-specialist audiences with fundamental physics more than submitting himself to peer-review and moved into science communication.

The founder of LHComedy, CERN’s first ever comedy show, he now runs science education shows that have played in venues as diverse as the Royal Institution and The Green Man Festival. His Hunting the Higgs talk was recently performed for hundreds of school students here at the Cavendish, and has been seen by tens of thousands around the world.

Alongside this, he blogs, podcasts, and regularly posts videos to YouTube covering current scientific stories and in-depth breakdowns of complex particle physics. Today, we’ll talk about what drove him to look for the most fundamental building blocks of the universe, why he now subjects himself to audiences of teenagers, and how he feels particle physics research can make a better case for itself… Stay with us!

Useful links

• Check Sam's website The Bad Boy of Science and his YouTube channel: Welcome to the Bad Boy of Science YT channel!
• To learn more about the LHCb experiment, check the CERN website: LHCb |CERN
• LHComedy, CERN's 1st ever comedy show founded by Sam in 2013 , is still available online: LHComedy

Share and join the conversation

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Episode credits

• Hosts: Vanessa Bismuth and Jacob Butler
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

This month, we are joined by Oliwia Zawadzka, a Research Laboratory Technician at the Cavendish Laboratory. Oliwia grew up in Poland before moving to the UK aged 9. Dropped in at the deep end, she spent the next few years learning English just in time to sit her exams. Despite doing well, she decided the typical path through university wasn’t for her and set about finding an apprenticeship that suited.

This brought her to the Cavendish, where she started as a laboratory technician apprentice, helping the technicians in their work supporting the research of the department.

Today, we’ll talk about where her time as an apprentice has taken her, what it’s like telling Cambridge academics what to do, her work around the university to bring awareness to the programmes available, and her advice to anyone thinking about following a similar path…

• Learn more about the apprenticeship scheme at the Cavendish and about the National Apprenticeships Scheme.
• Explore the Cavendish Outreach projects and events.
• Listen to the People Doing Physics episode with Lisa Jardine on outreach, Isaac Physics and the STEMSMART programme.

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Jacob Butler and Charlie Walker
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

Today we are joined by Professor Sam Stranks, Professor of Optoelectronics and Royal Society University Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, and a Joint Member here at the Cavendish Laboratory. Growing up in Australia, Sam graduated from the University of Adelaide with a BA in German and Applied Mathematics, alongside a BSc in Physics and Physical Chemistry, before completing a PhD at Oxford University.

His research focuses on developing novel materials for low-cost electronics applications, such as solar cells and LEDs, and he is co-founder of Swift Solar, a company taking this technology to market by developing lightweight perovskite solar panels.

If working in business and academia wasn't enough, Sam teaches at the university, setting up several new PhD programmes, and is one the co-founders of Sustain/Education, a national charity developing content for Primary Schools looking at climate change solutions.

In this episode, we talk about his multidisciplinary route through science, how he manages to keep a foot in both research and industry, and just how many times he came close to dropping physics entirely...

• Learn more about Sam Stranks’ research by visiting his group website.
• Sam’s spin-out company: Swift Solar - Next generation lightweight and efficient solar technology
• The new PhD programme PhDin Sustainable Energy Materials Innovations is now open for applications!
• Visit the Sustain/Education website to learn more about their actions in primary school classes across the country.
• Listen back to Stuart Macpherson, co-founder of Sustain/Education, talking about his own journey into physics on this podcast.
• And finally, explore the Cavendish Laboratory, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2024

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Jacob Butler and Vanessa Bismuth
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

Our guests today come from very different walks of life and have been following widely different paths, which have both led them here to Cambridge and the Cavendish. More than just location, it’s clear that our guests have a lot in common and a lot to share.

Ugandan contemporary artist, dancer and researcher, Robert Ssempijja, is the third Cavendish Arts Science Fellow at Girton College, a programme that creates collective encounters between art and science, that explores the world, our humanity and our place in the world. His work explores things that spoken language cannot always explain, and that are too difficult to talk about out loud.

Harry Cliff is a particle physicist working on the LHCb experiment, a huge particle detector buried 100 metres underground at CERN in Switzerland, to study the basic building blocks of our universe, in search of answers to some of the biggest questions in modern physics.

He is also a recognised author of popular science books, and a former curator at the Science Museum in London.

Ssempijja and Harry have met in Cambridge as part of Ssempijja’s fellowship, and have instantly recognised a common curiosity, and a desire to continuously question the world around them.

So it’s very logical that we are welcoming them both today to the podcast, to expand upon their journeys with us, and discuss their shared questions and approaches between art and physics.

• Explore Ssempijja's work: Robert Ssempijja – Dance, Life and Philosophy
• Harry Cliff's website has details about his books, research and outreach works.
• The annual Cavendish Arts Science Fellowship is delivered in partnership with Girton College, thanks to the vision and generous support of Una Ryan. Cavendish Arts Science will soon announce their new Fellow for 2024/25, stay tuned!
• Learn more about Robert B. Laughlin's book "A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down"

• Help us get better by taking our quick survey. Your feedback will help us understand how we can improve in the future. Thank you!
• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Charlie Walker and Vanessa Bismuth
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

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. A year and a bit later, the newest home of the Cavendish Laboratory is now completed and we’re gearing up for the migration of 1,100 staff and students, along with research and teaching labs, scientific equipment, and technical instruments.

Let’s jump back in with our guest Andy Parker, who was the Head of the Cavendish at the time, for a wander around the new building and a fantastic chat about inventions, reinventions, and the future of physics.

We hope you’ll like it and if you do, don’t forget to rate the episode or to leave us a review on your favourite podcast app!

Episode 13: A tour of the Cavendish's new home with Andy Parker

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 very own journey and connection with Physics.

For this special anniversary episode, we’ve asked the head of the Cavendish Laboratory, Professor Andy Parker to take us to a building site. Not any building site though. The one, just across the road from the department’s current location, where the newest home for the Cavendish Laboratory will open in 2024.

A Professor of High Energy Physics, Andy joined the Cavendish as a lecturer in 1989. He served as Deputy Head of Department for 3 years before becoming Head of Department in 2013.

Who better than Andy then, who has overseen this immense project for the best part of the past 10 years, to show us around and talk about what the new building means for the future of physics in Cambridge and nationally?

With him we wandered and we roamed and we talked: about particle physics, ever bigger underground tunnels, and a lost spring on the carpet.

• Learn more about the Ray Dolby Centre and about the relationship between Ray Dolby at the Cavendish.
• Explore the world of CERN, the Large Hadron Collider and the ATLAS inner detector.
• To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested in joining us or studying with us, go to www.phy.cam.ac.uk

• If you like this episode don’t forget to rate it and leave a review on your favourite podcast app. It really helps others to find us.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at podcast@phy.cam.ac.uk or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Jacob Butler and Vanessa Bismuth
• Recording and