Question: What's it like working at/for Cambridge university?

Paul Coxon answered on 9 Mar 2014:

It’s great fun, as a scientist, it’s a real privilege to be working in the same institution as many of the great names in physics: Newton, Maxwell, Rutherford, Dirac, Hawking…

Cambridge is a collegiate university, but I don’t have much involvement in the colleges, except for attending a few events or posh dinners: as a postdoc, my main connection is to my department.

The department’s recently moved into a swanky new building on the West Cambridge site, where a lot of science departments will be sited over the next few years. It’s nice to have brand new labs and facilities because it helps me do better research, and since my research in nanomaterials is interdisciplinary – a mix of chemistry/physics/materials/electronics – it’s great to have so many other world-leading departments nearby.