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