Intro

Joining us this month is Melanie Tribble, the Cleanroom Manager for the Cavendish Laboratory.  For the last three decades, she has kept the cleanrooms of the Cavendish up and running, going from working with one research group to providing support for the entire laboratory and external companies – ensuring that the ultra-clean environment needed for the creation of modern semiconductors is maintained, despite the aging hardware and a constant influx of new users.

Growing up in Birmingham, Melanie found an enthusiasm for Physics at an early age; despite having to travel to the local boys’ school to actually find a Physics teacher.  She later went on to study at Oxford, where she picked up a husband as well as a degree in Physics.  After a brief stint work in atomic energy and selling store credit cards in Canada, she found herself job-hunting in Cambridge just as a position in the cleanrooms became available and she has been here ever since. From starting off with nearly no knowledge of cleanroom equipment, Melanie has overseen two extensions to the cleanrooms and an explosion in the types of devices created in them.  When she’s not fixing aging apparatus or making devices for undergraduates, she’s training users or helping researchers turn their plans into reality.

Today, we’ll chat with her about what it takes to keep a cleanroom running, her path into science, and the changes she’s seen during her time in the lab. 

Stay with us…

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[00:33] - Guests intro

[02:26] – What is a cleanroom?

[03:00] – Typical Day as a Cleanroom Manager

[05:49] – Choosing and starting Science and Physics

[9:20] – Reasons behind choosing Physics at Oxford  

[13:05] – Story behind meeting her husband at Oxford

[14:30] – In the news this month: A team of researchers led by the NanoPhotonics Centre in the Cavendish Laboratory has shown a way to monitor the chemistry of liquid electrolytes during battery cycling by Raman spectroscopy. Similar to a blood test, Raman spectra of battery electrolytes provide unique information on their chemical state-of-health. The research team’s spectroscopic measurements reveal significant changes in the carbonate solvents and electrolyte additives during charging and discharging, allowing them to track how lithium-ions repeatably move across the battery. The new methodology contributes to understanding better the limitations of Li-ion batteries and paves the way for studies of degradation mechanisms in different electrochemical energy storage systems.

[15:54] – Interesting career path – experience in Atomic energy

[17:43] – Canada Experience

[19:33] – Coming back to UK and starting work in the cleanroom

[21:12] – Experience of working in the cleanroom

[23:44] – Measures in the cleanrooms to avoid cross contamination

[26:24] – Evolution of cleanrooms over the years and current scenario

[28:53] – Physics department changes over the years

[30:23] – Work during the pandemic

[38:15] – Outro

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Useful links:     

Read the article on this month’s news - Seeing recharging of lithium-ion batteries with fibre Raman spectroscopy

Journal Article link of the news release - Hollow-core optical fibre sensors for operando Raman spectroscopy investigation of Li-ion battery liquid electrolytes

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 

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Episode credits:

Hosts: Paolo Molignini and Jacob Butler

News presenter: Simone Eizagirre Barker

Producer: Chris Brock