MAY 2021 ISSUE 25 NEWS Special Guest Editorial ANDY PARKER, Head of the Cavendish, reviews the challenges of the last year under Covid-19 restrictions. his has been a difficult year for everybody, with the pandemic exposing some of the weaknesses of our modern lifestyles. The Cavendish was not spared, and on the 20th of TMarch 2020, during the first UK national lockdown, we were forced to shut down our activities for the first time since the foundation of the Laboratory. That afternoon, I did a final safety inspection before leaving the buildings in the care of our INSIDE facilities staff with a heavy heart. Fortunately, by Special Guest Editorial 2 the middle of June we were able to begin reopening Didier Queloz 6 our laboratories for experimental work to resume. Roberto Maiolino 10 During the shutdown, our facilities team faced the Val Gibson OBE 12 then uncertain risks of Covid to attend every day, Quantum, quantum everywhere... 12 keeping the buildings safe, and taking advantage of Vanessa Bismuth 13 the situation to complete many maintenance projects Three European Research Council Advanced Grants in our absence. It was their hard work and dedication awarded to Cavendish researchers 14 which allowed us to be among the first Departments Heine Gold Medal 15 in Cambridge to resume research activities. Eloy de Lera Acedo wins STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship 15 Since then, we have adapted to the strange new world. Only about Beautiful rare decays and lepton-flavour universality 16 a quarter of our staff are in residence on a typical day. An enormous AION 18 effort has been made by the staff to deliver lectures, practical classes On LEGO and elephants 20 and examinations online where needed, and in person where possible. Our students have faced the changes with the resilience we have come Ray Dolby Centre News 22 to expect of such talented individuals, and although their experience Outreach during the Pandemic 24 has been impacted, they will graduate with the skills and qualifications Isaac Physics: Update and New Faces 25 they will need for their futures. Our teaching was recognised with the award of the Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence to Tina Potter Cavendish News 27 (see News Section). How you can contribute 28 Most of our staff work from home, some coping with loneliness, and others performing their duties in spite of cramped conditions with COVER PAGE: relatives and children. We owe them a great debt for their dedication. The Ray Dolby Centre in April 2021. In the distance, the building with We are all now feeling the lack of human contact, and the limitations the orange panels is the Common Facilities Building for the West Cambridge Science and Technology Campus. In front of it are the of social interactions via screens. With the vaccination programme four wings of the Ray Dolby Centre, with the addition of the building now well advanced, we all look forward to seeing our colleagues again on JJ Thomson Avenue which contains the large 400-seater lecture in person, before the end of this academic year. Both teaching and theatre. research rely on the free exchange of ideas, and informal discussion is 2 vital to that. While we are keeping the flame alive, High Energy Physics group. Many of you will FIGURE 1. the sparks of inspiration are not flying as far as have seen the recent news from CERN, where The construction of they normally do! tantalising hints of new physics have been the Ray Dolby Centre observed (see page 16). Paula has been central in March 2021. During the year, we have welcomed some to these efforts, and has just been awarded the outstanding new academic staff. The Winton Institute of Physics HEPP Prize for her leadership. programme used some of the generous donation from David Harding to establish We marked the end of an era in September, with two lectureships which will carry forward the retirements of Richard Friend, Cavendish the sustainability agenda into the future. We Professor since 1995, and Athene Donald who were delighted to welcome Akshay Rao and was appointed to our staff in 1983. Both founded Chiara Chiccarelli to these positions, following their own fields of physics, organic electronics, their outstanding success as Winton Fellows. and soft matter, and both have had huge impact Sustainability will be an increasingly important on these fields and beyond. I am happy to report driver for the research agenda as we face up to that Richard continues his research part-time, climate change. We were also fortunate to attract liberated from more mundane responsibilities, Paula Álvarez Cartelle to a lectureship in our as a Director of Research, and Athene continues MAY 2021 ISSUE 25 3 NEWS FIGURE 2. (left) Wing 4 Central Utility Building (CUB). (top right) Wing 4 CUB North-West elevation. (bottom right) Wing 5, which will house the Large Lecture Room and entrance atrium. to be an influential voice in policy, particularly Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy, in supporting women in science, in her role as aims to understand the origin of life in the Universe, Master of Churchill College. by seeking signatures of biological processes in distant worlds (see page 6). He has built up We are now seeking to recruit two new senior an impressive interdisciplinary team, including staff, who will provide leadership in the Cavendish geologists and biologists as well as those in the tradition, while striking out in new directions. The humanities and the Divinity School, to explore the first will be a new Cavendish Professor, who complex issues this field raises. The new lecturer will will follow in the footsteps of Richard and his complement the existing skills in Cambridge, giving predecessors such as Maxwell, Rutherford and us one of the strongest teams in the world. The Mott - big shoes to fill! Thanks to the extraordinary second lecturer will work in the area of extragalactic generosity of the Dolby family, we are also seeking astronomy. Roberto Maiolino has just won a a Dolby Professor, who will be supported by Royal Society Research Professorship, recognising endowed postdocs and students. In honour of his leadership in the field (see page 10). He has a Ray Dolby’s career, we intend this appointment key role in MOONS, the next generation optical to have a focus on experiment and the practical and near‐infrared multi‐object spectrograph for applications of advanced physics technologies. For ESO's Very Large Telescope, as well as NIRSpec, the both of these Chairs we expect to attract interest near‐IR spectrograph on board the James Webb from some of the best researchers in the world, and Space Telescope, and HIRES, the high resolution I look forward to announcing the appointments in spectrograph for ESO's Extremely Large Telescope. due course. The new lecturer will be able to participate in the development of these instruments and exploit At a more junior level, we have just advertised the wealth of data that they will bring,. These two lectureships in astrophysics. The first of these will centre on exploring the evolution of galaxies will work in the area of exoplanets, where our and their central black holes from their epoch of recent Nobel Laureate, Didier Queloz now our formation in the early stages of the cosmos. 4 A measure of our success in research can be complex services. Some of the research wings gauged by our winning prestigious grants. have the exterior facade and windows in place, Our Hitachi Professor, Henning Sirringhaus, and offices, workshops and laboratories are scored an extraordinary double, winning both taking shape within. The public wing houses a Royal Society Research Professorship and an the impressive shell of the Dolby auditorium, ERC Advanced Investigator award for his work capable of seating 400 people in lecture mode, on thermoelectric materials and thermal energy and a decent-sized band when used for more harvesting (see CavMag24). These are the most social occasions! The steelwork which will suspend difficult grants to obtain at UK and European the smaller lecture theatre over the reception area levels. Richard Friend has been awarded an will complete the building superstructure. It is a ERC Advanced Investigator award for his work spectacular sight and bodes well for the future of on spin control in radical semiconductors, the the Laboratory. SCORS project, which will explore the electronic properties of organic semiconductors that have The government has supported us with a grant an unpaired electron to give net magnetic of £75m, in return for which we will operate spin. Zoran Hadzibabic has also received an a National Facility for Physics, offering ERC Advanced Investigator award to support access to advanced equipment to researchers his fundamental work on quantum mechanics, from other Universities and industry. This has using ultra-cold atoms. He is also one of the triggered a reorganisation of our facilities and winners of funding from the UK programme on their operation. We will aim to provide the same Quantum Sensors for Fundamental Physics, excellence in technical areas as we aspire to in along with Stafford Withington, working on research and teaching. We will create a career superconducting quantum devices, and Val structure progressing from apprenticeships to Gibson with Ulrich Schneider, who will use an senior technical officers, with opportunities to atom interferometer to search for dark matter work with the most cutting edge techniques at and black holes (see pages 18–19). We can look every level. This should attract the most ambitious and able practical individuals to work with us, in forward to a string of breakthroughs as these the tradition of JJ Thomson’s brilliant assistant, projects advance.