Mayte Li is a PhD student with Quantum City at the University of Calgary. Originally from Mexico City, she has found both challenge and inspiration in Calgary: from building quantum microscopes that harness entangled photons, to climbing in the Canadian Rockies. For Mayte, climbing and research share the same lessons: resilience, balance, and persistence in the face of setbacks. Along the way, she has built community and friendship, showing that science is not only about discovery but also about the people that make the climb possible.

• Mentor: Mayte Li, PhD student at the University of Calgary
• Host: Stefan Sura, Undergraduate student in physics at the University of Calgary
• Edited and produced by: Josué Ibarra Molinas, physics PhD student, University of Calgary

The PAM Talks gratefully acknowledges support from the University of Calgary Graduate Student Association Quality Money grant program.

Dr. Pooja Woosaree and Dr. Pamela Freeman recorded this episode in December 2024, shortly after both of their PhD defences. They recap the highs and the lows, the trials and the joys of graduate school. They chat about their thesis research, the opportunities for international collaboration, their personal journeys through university, and the community they had at the University of Calgary (Pamela: maybe the real research was the friends we made along the way).

With a bonus topic: why this podcast is named the PAM Talks!

• Pooja’s PhD: ‘First Measurement of Antihydrogen Free Fall Using a Radial Time Projection Chamber’, is explored in PAM Talks episode 1.5.1.

• Pamela’s PhD: ‘Chemical Diversity in High-Mass Star-Forming Regions', will be explored in a future episode; for more radio astronomy, see Dr. Anna Ordog’s PAM Talks episode 1.0.1.

• Edited and produced by: Dr. Pamela Freeman

The PAM Talks gratefully acknowledges support from the University of Calgary Graduate Student Association Quality Money grant program.

Introducing CalgaryToSpace, a group of students from the University of Calgary with the dream of launching Calgary's first student-built satellite! In this epsiode of the PAM Talks, mathematics PhD student, E, interviews Kaleigh Beer, President of CalgaryToSpace, and Aarti Chandiramani, Orbit Lead. The first CalgaryToSpace CubeSat, FrontierSat, is scheduled for launch in Fall 2025, in partnership with Exolaunch. Listen to learn about this exciting initiative and how students can become involved in Canada's aerospace industry.

• Mentor: Kaleigh Beer, President, and Aarti Chandiramani, Orbit Lead, from CalgaryToSpace
• Host: E, Mathematics PhD student
• Edited by: Becky Booth, physics PhD student, University of Calgary
• Produced by: Laiba Nayeem, undergraduate student, University of Calgary

The PAM Talks gratefully acknowledges support from the University of Calgary Graduate Student Association Quality Money grant program.