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Episode 18

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Published on:

4th Jul 2024

Replay: An open conversation with physics students

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 Liu, who had just graduated from Cambridge after his 4th year.

We’ll leave you with them and their very open and unfiltered views on their time and experience of studying physics at Cambridge.

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

Episode 18: An open conversation with physics students, Misha de Fockert, Ming-Shau Liu and Armaan Shaikh

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 us in the studio and talk to us, honestly and without filters, about their experience at Cambridge. Hearing directly from them may help young people thinking about studying physics in Cambridge or anywhere else, to take the leap.  

Misha de Fockert and Armaan Shaikh have just finished their 2nd year – here in Cambridge we call it Part IB, and Ming-Shau Liu is graduating from Cambridge after his 4th year, which, not confusingly at all, is called Part 3! 

All three of them, and this is just a coincidence, are students at Homerton College. With them today we talk about taking the time to reflect, imposter syndrome, building bridges and making friends for life.  

Useful links

  • If you are thinking about applying to Cambridge, visit the Undergraduate Study website.
  • Isaac Physics offer free support and activities in physics problem solving to teachers and students transitioning from GCSE (Y11), through to Sixth Form (Y12 & 13), to university. For direct support, you can also sign up to the Isaac Physics mentoring scheme.
  • To learn more about the Cavendish Laboratory, or if you are interested in joining us or studying with us, go to the Cavendish website.

Share and join the conversation

  • 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 X/Twitter using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

Episode credits

Hosts: Vanessa Bismuth and Jacob Butler

Recording and Editing: Chris Brock



This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
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About the Podcast

People doing Physics
The podcast exploring the personal side of physics
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, technicians, students, teachers, and people that are the beating heart of Cambridge University’s Physics department. Each episode also covers the most exciting and up-to-date physics news coming out of our labs. If you want to know what goes on behind the doors of a Physics department, are curious to know how people get into physics, or simply wonder what physicists think and dream about, listen in!
Join us on Twitter @DeptofPhysics using the hashtag #PeopleDoingPhysics.

About your hosts

Vanessa Bismuth

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I'm the Cavendish's Communications Manager and I want the world to know about the extraordinary people that are working, researching and studying here.

Jacob Breward Butler

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Working in the Outreach Office of the Cavendish Laboratory, I run Cambridge University Physics' educational outreach programmes, helping young people from around the UK to see physics as a worthwhile endeavour.

Charles Walker

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As a researcher at Cavendish Astrophysics and Selwyn College, Cambridge, I help develop and use radio telescopes to learn more about the Universe, and perform outreach to help others learn more about our work, and us!