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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

Useful links

• 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

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