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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Useful links:
Read the full news story about mutating quantum particles set in motion https://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/news/mutating-quantum-particles-set-motion (on our website).
To learn more about Tina Potter and her work, visit https://www.hep.phy.cam.ac.uk/ (High Energy Physics | (cam.ac.uk))
Curious about CERN? https://home.web.cern.ch/ (Home | CERN)
To learn more about what’s been discussed in this episode, or why not, join us or study with us at the Cavendish, go to http://www.phy.cam.ac.uk/ (www.phy.cam.ac.uk) 

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Episode credits:
Hosts: Simone Eizagirre Barker and Paolo Molignini
News presenters: Vanessa Bismuth and Jacob Butler
Producer: Chris Brock