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People doing PhysicsThe podcast exploring the personal side of physics Author: Cavendish Laboratory
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 Universitys 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. This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy Language: en Genres: Education, Physics, Science Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Verity Allan: From ancient words to distant worlds
Episode 39
Wednesday, 3 December, 2025
Today we’re joined by Verity Allan, who works as a project manager, developer, and programmer of architecture and software for the Square Kilometre Array, which will be the world's largest radio telescope. A graduate of Cambridge, Oxford, and The Open University, Verity came to Cambridge from a town in the Midlands to study Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. How did she go from studying ancient languages, to coding, designing security for telescope software systems, and pursuing a PhD in high performance computing for astrophysics? These are just some of the twists and turns we hope to explore in our chat with Verity. Stay with us.Useful Links:Explore | SKAO - Learn more about the two largest telescope arrays in the worldRoss Anderson's book on Security Engineering, mentioned by Verity, is available at https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/archive/rja14/book.html (all three editions plus some videos)Verity wrote two papers on the history of scientific computing: The Cavendish Computors: The women working in scientific computing for Radio Astronomy and Scientific Computing in the Cavendish Laboratory and the pioneering women ComputorsLearn more about Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics - The University of Manchester and about our Astrophysics work in Cambridge.Share and join the conversationHelp 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 creditsHosts: Vanessa Bismuth and Charlie WalkerRecording and editing: Chris BrockThis podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
