People doing Physics

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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. Alongside this, she has found time to excel in middle distance running, becoming European youth Champion, Irish champion and representing Ireland in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Noam Mouelle is a PhD student with the high Energy Physics Group, part of the National Atom Interferometry Observatory and Network, using Ultra Cold Atom Technologies to investigate dark matter. In his sporting life, he's won several French national junior titles in rowing, competed in the Junior World Championships, and was one of the rowers in the 2023 Cambridge men's team who won the famous Oxford Cambridge Boat Race last March. They talk to us today about balancing training and study, the benefits and downsides their lifestyle brings and what they get up to when they're not out on the track or river.

[00:40] Guests intro

[01:40] What brought you to physics?

[03:08] Working at a similar scale but looking at very different things

[06:50] A PhD as a natural progression from undergraduate studies

[09:07] A typical day balancing studies and sports

[12:23] To say or not to say, a different approach to disclosing a sporting carreer to their supervisors

[16:44] Why running, why rowing? And how it helps in physics (and vice versa)

[23:36] Qualifying for the Olympics - a long term ambition

[26:30] Coming to Cambridge to study AND win the boat race

[29:22] So, what's next?

[34:30] Outro

• Learn more about Louise's AMOP group and Noam's AOIN work
• 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 [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Jacob Butler
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

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 accolades, including the Royal Society Bakerian Medal, the L'Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, the Institute of Physics' Faraday Medal, and ten honorary doctorates. She is also a strong advocate for women in science and has chaired numerous diversity and gender equality initiatives that seek to improve the representation and career progression of women in STEM.

[00:48] – Guest’s intro

[03:29] – Inspiration to do science and physics

[06:41] – Experience of studying natural sciences at Girton College and overcoming initial difficulties in studying physics

[14:15] – Keeping motivated during the research

[16:48] – Moving to Cornell for post doc and culture shock

[18:18] – Coming back to Cambridge and work in soft matter physics

[19:50] – Studying Mechanical properties of snack foods and using techniques like small angle X-ray scattering

[23:00] – Inspiration behind advocacy of women in science and the book release - Not just for the Boys

[26:33] – Diversity is good for science  

[28:05] – Decision on joining Churchill College as Master

[30:32] – Blogging and the book – Not just for the boys

[31:35] – Outreach and policy work

[34:00] – Tackling generalised statements about women and girls in science

[37:02] – Advocacy work and hope for future 

[38:05] – Outro

• Learn more about Professor Dame Athene Donald  and her research group Biological and Soft Systems.
• During the episode Athene discusses her  Blog and forthcoming book  - Not Just for the Boys.  
• 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 [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Vanessa Bismuth
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

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 these cosmic structures came to be using data from some of the most advanced telescopes on, and above, Earth. His experience of using analytical and cosmological models to determine the physical properties of galaxies is being brought to bear on data from the recently activated James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam instrument, and he plays a key role in projects aimed at characterising the earliest galaxies.

His research has taken him around the world, from Switzerland to Korea and the US, but he has still found time to start a family and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Today, we’ll talk to him about the benefits and unique problems he faces working in astrophysics, what it has been like to do cutting-edge research on three continents, and where he sees extragalactic astrophysics going in the near future.

[00:36] – Guest’s intro

[01:50] – Dreaming of space through a telescope

[03:57] – Physics degree and outreach events to become a budding astronomer

[05:03] – It's not so easy to do Astrophysics in Switzerland

[06:00] – From broad astrophysics to extragalactic observations

[08:17] – The exquisite images from the Hubble Space Telescope

[10:00] – Why do galaxies look like what they do today? Look at them back in time!

[12:17] – Live podcast announcement with special guest Professor Dame Athene Donald

[13:42] - Starting a family while doing a PhD

[16:35] – What counts when you try to succeed during a PhD are you don't get the support you need from your group?

[20:05] – There is work, and there is family...

[21:05] - Restarting a career at Harvard and working on the James Webb Telescope

[23:15] – From Harvard to Korea to the UK- two kids, a partner, a postdoc, and a pandemic

[26:35] - Analising the date from James Webb Telescope and understanding when the very first galaxies and black holes formed and how they evolved

[31:25] Astrophysics is famous for finding things that nobody was expecting

[33:46] – Outro  

• Join us for a LIVE recording of the Poeple Doing Physics with special guest Professor Dame Athene Donald on Saturday 18th March at 3.30pm. Part of Cambridge event is part of the Cambridge Festival from the University of Cambridge.

Reserve your free spot now!

• Learn more about Sandro Tacchella and his work in the Galaxy Formation and Evolution Group at Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge
• 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 [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Jacob Butler
• Recording and Editing: Chris Brock

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 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.  

[00:36] – Guest’s intro

[01:38] – A walk through the Ray Dolby Centre – part 1

[07:07] – Back in the studio: how dismantling things as a kid lead to a career in physics

[08:38] – The world of CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research

[11:35] – 300 Neutrino collisions

[12:40] – Young and foolish scientists solving the R&D issues related to construction of the Large Hadron Collider, and its ATLAS inner detector.

[15:40] – Developing the next 100 km long accelerator

[20:25] - A walk through the Ray Dolby Centre – part 2

[25:15] – Rebuilding a new laboratory and attracting the crème de la crème in physics

[29:25] - Raising millions towards developing new physics and pushing towards the unknown

[33:16] – The great relief

[34:59] – What’s coming and exciting in Physics in the Ray Dolby Centre and elsewhere?  

[37:40] – Outro  

• 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 [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

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

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 University.

Drawn to interdisciplinary research, she completed a PhD in Radiation Physics at UCL’s Department of Medical Physics, looking at x-ray imaging techniques for cancer detection and working alongside biologists and chemists.  Following this, Sarah moved towards optics, in order to become involved in clinical trials and took up postdoctoral positions in Cambridge and Stanford.

Currently, her research group, the Vision Lab, looks to understand tumours using new medical imaging techniques, and Sarah is also particularly interested in the incredibly important process of standardising complex methods and datasets between laboratories. Alongside her research, she has championed public engagement and interdisciplinary research training, and pushes for open access, practical solutions to serious medical issues.

 Stay with us… 

Please 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.

[00:34] – Guest’s intro

[02:03] – Growing up in Greenwich, fascination with Astrophysics and interest in physics

[03:36] – Interest in using physics for medical application

[08:35] – X-ray tomography techniques and working as part of the UK-wide consortium during PhD

[12:05] – Inter-disciplinary aspect of work

[13:27] – Importance of Physics of medicine building and holistic medical research approach

[20:01] – In the news this month we talk about how reshaping RNA to an origami identifier opens new avenues for understanding and advancing disease diagnostics.

RNA or ribonucleic acid is one of the key biological molecules that bridges our genetic information (DNA) and molecular factories (proteins). RNA has a single strand in comparison to double-stranded DNA helix. Labour-intensive approach of RNA sequencing suffers enzyme biases that causes the loss of native RNA information including RNA identity and quantity. Up until now, we could not detect RNA ‘makeup’,  including its chemical modifications and overall shape. The mere order of bases in RNA could not tell us how that RNA looked. Researchers have recently developed a new method - Amplification-free RNA TargEt Multiplex Isoform Sensing (ARTEMIS) that has made possible the identification of multiple RNAs in parallel.

[25:15] – Shift from imaging to NMR

[29:16] – Current Research while leading the Vision Lab at the Cavendish

[31:00] – Making improvement in the existing medical technologies(devices)

[32:47] – Working with humongous datasets, open access and standardisation

[36:12] – Future exciting development in medical imaging

[38:59] – Outro

• Know more about Physics of Medicine research here.
• Read the article on this month’s news - Reshaping RNA to an origami identifier opens new avenues for understanding and advancing disease diagnostics
• Link of the Research Paper for this month’s news release - Nanopore microscope identifies RNA isoforms with structural colours
• 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.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts: Jacob Butler and Simone Eizagirre Barker
• News presenter: Paolo Molignini
• Producer: Chris Brock

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 physics, topological phases of matter, quantum optics and quantum simulation.  

Born in Switzerland, he gained his BSc, MSc, and PhD in Physics from ETH Zurich before taking up a postdoctoral position in the Quantum Systems Engineering group at Oxford.  His research involves developing several software applications for modelling quantum systems, including UNIQORN, which applies machine learning to model systems of ultra-cold atoms. 

On top of this, Paolo has found time to contribute to several outreach programmes; producing a series of videos on superconductors during his time at Oxford, creating a doodle video on topological insulators for the first online Cambridge Science Festival, as well as hosting a monthly podcast looking at the people behind the physics research taking place at the Cavendish. 

Today, we’ll talk about his experiences growing up in southern Switzerland, his path from Civil Engineer to Physicist, the work he does as a theoretician working in an experimental laboratory, and where this will take him next.  

Stay with us… 

Please 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.

[00:36] – Guest’s intro

[02:02] – Current role at the Cavendish  

[03:00] – More about Topological materials

[04:37] – Early interest in Science  

[06:20] – Choosing Physics

[11:00] – Gravitating towards Condensed matter physics

[14:30] – Finding the PhD role and finding funding

[18:05] – In the news this month we talk about phase transitions. Whether we boil water or cook pasta, a phase transition is taking place.  Matter can appear in many more different phases, some of which have an inherently quantum origin, such as superfluids or ferromagnets. While some of the classical phase transitions have been known for centuries, in recent years we have started to discover and study new exciting kinds of phase transitions at the quantum level which could be soon harnessed for incredible new technologies.

[21:41] – Further News discussion with the guest Dr Paolo Molignini: Extending topological invariants to finite temperatures

[24:23] – Further News discussion with the guest Dr Paolo Molignini: Making an insulator topological by changing the temperature

[25:10] – Perception about research as a whole

[27:37] – Challenges with getting research papers published in journals

[29:41] – Successful way in research is to specialise in a sub-field and become leaders in that field

[31:19] – Experience during PhD and enlarging skillsets (computing)

[32:55] – Next career move as a postdoc and pandemic

[36:30] – Interest in outreach and doing the podcast

[38:11] – What is next?

[41:00] – Outro

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• Visit TCM Group  to understand more about the Theory of Condensed Matter research group
• Read the article on this month’s news - Topological phase transitions at finite temperature
• Pre-print link of the Research Paper for this month’s news release - https://arxiv.org/abs/2208.08994
• 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.
• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

• Hosts & News presenters: Jacob Butler and Simone Eizagirre Barker
• Producer: Chris Brock

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 to probe with extreme precision fundamental properties of quantum matter which would otherwise be inaccessible in other kinds of experiments, for instance in material science.

She has done research at St. Andrews, Oxford, and now Cambridge, working on all the aspects of ultracold experiments, from devising optical traps, to performing quantum simulation of exotic lattices, to engineering the next generation of cooling and transport instruments. Her latest project is very ambitious: in a consortium of 7 UK universities, she is trying to build a new type of interferometer with the ultimate goal of detecting dark matter and gravitational waves.

Tiffany is also a very passionate outreach communicator. She is interested in finding new and creative ways of presenting her research, for instance by combining it with dance or devising board games inspired by the physics she sees in the lab. Her goal is to make science fun and understandable for a range of different audiences, from children to adults.

In today’s episode, we’ll talk to her about the challenges of devising experiments at the limits of zero temperature, on how to find motivation when experiments break down, and how to navigate postdoc life in and out of the pandemic.

Stay with us…

Please 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.

[00:36] – Guest’s intro

[02:16] – Early Background and inspiration to do physics

[05:34] – Experience at St. Andrews

[07:22] – First encounter with cold atoms, summer project involving laser beam shaping for traps

[09:52] – Part of regular journal club where presented a paper on vortex nucleation in Bose-Einstein condensates

[11:17] – PhD experience and challenges with the experiment(setup)

[13:50] – Building back the experiment stronger and better

[14:30] – Advice to a student dealing with similar issues (failed experiments, struggling with PhD)

[18:33] – Post Doc at Cavendish Lab

[21:02] – First project on quantum simulation of Kagome lattice for flat band physics and frustrated magnetism

[25:28] – In the news this month we talk about a new technique to look inside Lithium-ion batteries. Clean and efficient energy storage technologies are essential to establishing a renewable energy infrastructure. Lithium-ion batteries are already dominant in personal electronic devices and are promising candidates for reliable grid-level storage and electric vehicles. It is very important to improve their charging rates and usable lifetimes. To do so scientist need to understand the changes occurring inside an operating battery. Researchers at the Cavendish have now developed a low-cost lab-based optical microscopy technique to study lithium-ion batteries. The key advantages of the methodology will enable further exploration of what happens when batteries fail and how to prevent it. The technique can be applied to study almost any type of battery material, making it an important piece of the puzzle in the development of next-generation batteries.

[28:12] – Most recent experiment on AION project

[37:31] – Outreach, Public Engagement and sharing the love for science

[42:37] – Research Staff Committee role

[46:25] – Outro

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• Visit Atom Interferometry webpage to understand more about Tiffany's current research and the AION collaboration.
• During the show Tiffany talks about her involvement with Intellectual Forum at Jesus college
• Read the article on this month’s news - A technique to guide the development of faster and longer lasting next-generation batteries
• Research Paper link for this month’s news release - www.nature.com/articles/s41563-022-01324-z
• 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.

• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Paolo Molignini

News presenter: Jacob Butler

Producer: Chris Brock

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 Ryle.  Specialising in high energy astrophysics and astrophysical cosmology, Malcolm has since been a Royal Society Exchange Visitor to the USSR; held visiting professorships at prestigious institutions around the world; been the Astronomy Royal for Scotland; Cambridge’s Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy; Deputy Head and Head of the Cavendish Laboratory.  He has contributed to international scientific bodies, such as NASA and ESA, and found the time to publish 22 books, over 300 scientific papers, and give hundreds of public lectures.

Most recently, he has been Director of Development for the Cavendish Laboratory.  In this role, he has helped modernise the Cavendish Laboratory, with the building of the Physics of Medicine building and Maxwell Centre, and the soon-to-be completed Ray Dolby Centre which will house most of the upcoming National Facility for Physics.

Today, we will be talking about Malcolm’s path into Physics, what over half a century of working at the cutting edge of science has taught him, and where he sees the Cavendish laboratory going in the future. 

Stay with us…

Please 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.

[00:36] – Guest’s intro

[02:39] – Starting out in Physics  

[05:08] – Time at Cambridge doing PhD

[06:00] – 1960’s, the revolutionary decade of Astronomy

[08:00] – Time in Moscow 1968/1969 and change of attitude towards understanding science

[10:35] – Joining back at Cambridge as an Assistant Professor

[11:12] – Understanding in Physics continues to develop

[11:37] – Involvement with various organisations and evolving from research focused role to managing the big picture

[12:06] – Experience with SRC and becoming Astronomer Royal for Scotland

[13:55] – Interdisciplinary Scientist for Hubble Space Telescope (1977) and learning how to get big projects operating

[15:40] – Guidance to scientists looking at working in policy and related fields

[17:00] – Important things for scientists to think about for fundings and funding proposals

[20:49] – In the news this month we focus on how artificial intelligence is helping to speed up the discovery of new materials. Atoms are the basic building blocks of every material. Combining different types of atoms naturally leads to different materials. However, it is not just the types of atoms that determine material properties, but also their arrangement.

[24:37] – Moving back to Cavendish as Professor and Head of the Department, and rebuilding Cavendish Laboratory

[27:50] – Sequence of new Cavendish buildings and facilities to support different research areas (such as Physics of Medicine, Astrophysics and more)

[31:58] – Future vision essential for Cavendish  

[33:02] – Key takeaways, suggestions for early science researchers / physicists  

[36:35] – Outro

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• Visit   Cavendish Astrophysics to understand more about their research.
• Read more about Cavendish Laboratory's new home and facility - Ray Dolby Centre
• Read the article on this month’s news - AI tackles the challenge of materials structure prediction | University of Cambridge
• Research Paper link for this month’s news release - Rapid discovery of stable materials by coordinate-free coarse graining
• 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.

Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Jacob Butler

News presenter: Paolo Molignini

Producer: Chris Brock

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 physics. For her doctoral studies at Duke University, she took her first big jump and pivoted to computational work in soft matter physics and proteins. After that, she switched gears yet again and embarked on a postdoc in experimental microbiology at Berkeley.

Diana then joined the Department of Physics here at the Cavendish in 2018, where her growing research group now focuses on understanding bacterial biofilms and the coevolution between bacteria and viruses, employing a wide range of tools from microscopy, to theoretical modelling, to computational simulations.

In today’s episode, we’ll ask her about her unusual and adventurous journey through the disciplines, the differences and intersections between theoretical and experimental sciences, and what it’s like to not just find your path, but create it.

Stay with us…

Please 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.

[00:35] – Guest’s intro

[01:45] – Background and early interest in science

[03:04] – Interest and journey in Biological Physics

[03:49] – Moving to United States for PhD in Computational Biology and academic environment

[08:12] – Motivation behind switching to experimental research and finding post doc opportunity

[11:30] – Different approach towards doing science

[13:21] – Examples of other people who may have followed a similar science research journey

[13:56] – Shift and acceptance towards interdisciplinary science

[15:18] – Experiments during Postdoc – theory of bacterial evolution

[17:47] – In the news this month is the Cosmology experiment based in South Africa – HERA, Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array and its impact upon local development. The University of Cambridge is one of the seven international institutions, outside of South Africa, that collaborated on the international project – HERA, Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array. HERA is an international astronomy infrastructure, a radio telescope dedicated to observing how the first structures formed in the very early stages of the universe, as the first stars and galaxies lit up space. As per an impact study from SARAO, the University of Cambridge has been involved with the project in multiple ways. This involvement with the project, along with that by other institutions, has made a difference to the local community as well as nationally in South Africa.

[22:08] – Post-doc at Berkley and experience of applying to other senior positions

[24:16] – Decision to take up the Cavendish Opportunity

[26:36] – Moving to Cavendish and starting the research group during the pandemic

[28:11] – About the current group research (two projects) –

• Bio-films and bacteria communities

• Evolution of bacteriophages

[30:40] – Kind of experiments – Evolutionary experiments

[32:45] – Discrepancies in the experiments

[34:30] – More on Bio-films

[36:00] – Research Approach (bottom-up approach )

[37:55] – How is the bottoms-up research approach different from other research approaches?

[39:15] – Future of the research

[41:18] – Outro

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• Visit Biological and Biomedical Physics to understand more about their research.

• Read the article on this month’s news - HERA Project - Impacting local development through employment creation and encouraging participation of researchers in South Africa

• Impact study link for this month’s news release - https://www.sarao.ac.za/media-releases/hera-impact-study/

• 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.

• Any comment about the podcast or question you would like to ask our physicists, email us at [email protected] or join the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Hosts: Paolo Molignini and Simone Eizagirre Barker

News presenter: Jacob Butler

Producer: Chris Brock

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 needed for the creation of modern semiconductors is maintained, despite the aging hardware and a constant influx of new users.

Growing up in Birmingham, Melanie found an enthusiasm for Physics at an early age; despite having to travel to the local boys’ school to actually find a Physics teacher.  She later went on to study at Oxford, where she picked up a husband as well as a degree in Physics.  After a brief stint work in atomic energy and selling store credit cards in Canada, she found herself job-hunting in Cambridge just as a position in the cleanrooms became available and she has been here ever since. From starting off with nearly no knowledge of cleanroom equipment, Melanie has overseen two extensions to the cleanrooms and an explosion in the types of devices created in them.  When she’s not fixing aging apparatus or making devices for undergraduates, she’s training users or helping researchers turn their plans into reality.

Today, we’ll chat with her about what it takes to keep a cleanroom running, her path into science, and the changes she’s seen during her time in the lab. 

Stay with us…

Please 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.

[00:33] - Guests intro

[02:26] – What is a cleanroom?

[03:00] – Typical Day as a Cleanroom Manager

[05:49] – Choosing and starting Science and Physics

[9:20] – Reasons behind choosing Physics at Oxford  

[13:05] – Story behind meeting her husband at Oxford

[14:30] – In the news this month: A team of researchers led by the NanoPhotonics Centre in the Cavendish Laboratory has shown a way to monitor the chemistry of liquid electrolytes during battery cycling by Raman spectroscopy. Similar to a blood test, Raman spectra of battery electrolytes provide unique information on their chemical state-of-health. The research team’s spectroscopic measurements reveal significant changes in the carbonate solvents and electrolyte additives during charging and discharging, allowing them to track how lithium-ions repeatably move across the battery. The new methodology contributes to understanding better the limitations of Li-ion batteries and paves the way for studies of degradation mechanisms in different electrochemical energy storage systems.

[15:54] – Interesting career path – experience in Atomic energy

[17:43] – Canada Experience

[19:33] – Coming back to UK and starting work in the cleanroom

[21:12] – Experience of working in the cleanroom

[23:44] – Measures in the cleanrooms to avoid cross contamination

[26:24] – Evolution of cleanrooms over the years and current scenario

[28:53] – Physics department changes over the years

[30:23] – Work during the pandemic

[38:15] – Outro

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Read the article on this month’s news - Seeing recharging of lithium-ion batteries with fibre Raman spectroscopy

Journal Article link of the news release - Hollow-core optical fibre sensors for operando Raman spectroscopy investigation of Li-ion battery liquid electrolytes

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 

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Hosts: Paolo Molignini and Jacob Butler

News presenter: Simone Eizagirre Barker

Producer: Chris Brock