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Episode 2

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Published on:

3rd Mar 2022

Tina Potter

Our guest this month is Tina Potter, Professor of High Energy Physics at the Cavendish and expert in the particle physics Beyond the Standard Model.

Tina developed a passion for physics at a young age and has always been drawn to big, fundamental questions about the nature of our reality: what is the universe made of? How do its constituents behave? How can we detect them?

Her doctorate was when the world of CERN – the world-famous particle accelerator facility located at the border between Switzerland and France – opened up to her. She lived through the groundbreaking discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider, a discovery that completed the Standard Model of particle physics and for its importance was awarded the Nobel prize in physics in 2013.

Today, she is working on new theories Beyond the Standard Model that could explain phenomena that still remain a mystery while also teaching the next generation of physicists and raising her two children.

Tina certainly likes a challenge, but how does one forge their own path into science when there is no family scientific connection or role-model? And how is it to work on larger-than-life research projects with huge datasets and hundreds of collaborators across the world? We’re ask her this and more in this new episode.

Jump into the conversation:

[00:00] - Guest intro

[02:00] – First encounter with physics

[02:45] – The world of particle physics and its open, unexplored big questions

[05:00] – “I would like to know what Dark Matter is”

[07:20] – The wonderful world of CERN and its unique research culture

[10:15] – Getting over nerves and shyness - a quick strategy

[11:55] – What a time to be alive! Living through the Higgs boson discovery

[15:25] – Finally, my parents could understand - How the Higgs Boson discovery raised the profile of particle physics

[17:30] - In the news this month – Mutating Quantum Particles set in motion

[21:50] – Managing work-life balance in an academic environment  

[25:09] – Grasping every opportunity to survive the research career pyramid

[27:00] – How to forge your own path when there’s no academic role model in your life?

[30:25] – Approaching science with children and expanding their views on who can be a scientist

[31:46] – Finding evidence of particles beyond the Standard Model with supersymmetry

[37:15] – The beauty and challenges of cathedral projects

[42:56] - Outro

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Episode credits:

Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Paolo Molignini

News presenters: Vanessa Bismuth and Jacob Butler

Producer: Chris Brock



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

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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's educational Physics outreach programmes while studying a part-time Masters' in Education.

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!