Episode Four– All You Need is Maths feat. Caoimhe Rooney and Jessica Williams (Mathematigals)
Dr Caoimhe Rooney works for NASA, using maths to study exoplanets around distant stars.
Dr Jessica Williams works at MIT and Harvard Medical School, modelling blood flow and mathematical medicine.
What do these research areas have in common? We dived into the world of Applied Maths to find out!
On top of their usual research lives, Jess and Caoimhe founded Mathematigals, an organisation which aims to promote diversity in the physical sciences and encourage more #womeninSTEM. We talked to them about their experiences as women working as researchers in mathematics, and about how we can encourage children to stay interested in science beyond school.
Episode Three – Zachary Cox, Master of Distaster
Zachary Cox works in the really quite cool field of disaster research. While most of my research could easily be called a disaster, Zach instead focusses on how we can adapt to the unanticipated and bounce back stronger. From flooding in Hurricane Katrina through to his current work on how small businesses can best adapt to the Covid-19 pandemic, Zach’s work really couldn’t be more relevant to today’s world.
Episode Two – Rachel vs The Resistance
Dr Rachel Wheatley spends her days trying to pick apart the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. This is a big issue – if bacteria keep evolving to become resistant, we might end up with no effective treatments for bacterial infections. That would mean that a tiny cut could easily kill you – a state that that we don’t want to get back to!
Episode One – Josh Cowls saves the Internet
…and we’re off! Our first guest is Josh Cowls, a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute. As a researcher investigating the role of social media in modern life, Josh is one of the few students who literally CAN’T procrastinate by going on facebook.
Episode Zero – Paula & Josh Chat about Research
In our intro episode, we immediately break the first rule of podcasting – you do not talk about podcasting “stick to the format” – by having no cocktails, no guest, and no clue what we’re doing. This is our mini-manifesto, in which we briefly talk about our own research and try to give you some idea of just what this show is going to be about.