In this episode we have for the first time, not 1 but 2 guests, in a discussion split into 3 parts. This is the final part of the series, in which we discuss Physics education. In the first, we discussed interdisciplinary approaches to science, and in the second, environmental physics. Below is some information on each of the guests.   

Helen Rogers:

Helen is an atmospheric scientist with twenty years of experience in teaching, research and programme coordination. She has worked on developing atmospheric/climate models at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was Programme Manager for the NERC Upper Troposphere Lower Stratosphere Ozone Programme and a senior researcher for the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit. She has particular interest and expertise in determining the environmental impact of the transport sector (primarily aviation and shipping), atmospheric modelling, and computational fluid dynamics. Helen was a contributor to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (2002); ‘Climate Change 2001: The scientific basis’ – the Third Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); and the IPCC Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere (1999). Helen is the chair of the Environmental Physics Group at the Institute of Physics, with a D.Phil. in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Oxford and a degree in Physics from Imperial College, London.  

Luthais McCash:

Luthais is the Chief Scientific Officer at Sigma Solutions and chair of the mathematical and theoretical physics group at The Institute of Physics. Sigma Solutions was built entirely from scratch by Luthais as a business consulting firm that offers distinct ideas in state-of-the-art data analysis to a variety of businesses across multiple industries. The company has a reputation of finding creative approaches to complicated problems and has recently won the accolade of most innovative business 2022, awarded by Corporate Vision magazine.  Luthais himself has been recognised as one of the top 20 most dynamic CEOs in the UK of 2022 and he's still only in his twenties. Luthais was initially recognised as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in May 2020 for his creative work on advanced modelling and optimisation in the energy industry with a focus on oil and gas. He developed and implemented technology that revolutionised the trading and efficient distribution of liquified natural gas by cutting costs by a factor of 10. He's been re-elected as a fellow of the RSS in June 2021 and he has also been an honorary fellow at the University of Leicester in 2019-2021.  On top of his business exploits he is now also in a research position at Durham University.   

I hope you enjoy the discussion!  

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Chapters: 

00:00:00 Introduction 

00:01:06 How do we get more people excited about Physics? 

00:08:49 How can a deeper understanding be facilitated in education 

00:21:29 Maths as a language and what science is really about  

32:59 Should exams be harder? Do they even test the right thing? 

00:38:45 The importance of perseverance  

00:44:20 Diversity in Physics   

00:50:41 Coming full circle - intersections of disciplines   

00:53:09 Wiki guide to reforming the education system!