News

The Faculty of SEM has launched its annual Thesis and Post Doc prizes in January 2026 for the best thesis and research output of 2025 affiliated to the University of Warwick.

Our colleague Dr Claire Rocks achieved Senior Fellow (SFHEA) status through the dialogic route of Warwick’s Academic and Professional Pathway for Experienced Staff (APP EXP) programme. Her application was recognised by assessors as one of the strongest D3 submissions they had reviewed, demonstrating a sustained and significant record of educational leadership that extends well beyond her own teaching.

Claire’s work focuses on leading and influencing inclusive, evidence-informed approaches to assessment and curriculum design. She has played a central role in shaping teaching quality and learning culture across departmental, institutional, and sector contexts, including leading Warwick’s strand of the Inclusive Assessment in STEM project and contributing to institutional strategy through curriculum development and quality assurance processes.

Within the department, Claire has introduced collaborative structures such as module huddles and supported colleagues and students to work together to enhance clarity, consistency, and inclusivity in assessment practice. She has also strengthened pedagogic scholarship through establishing the Computer Science Education Research Group.

The panel particularly commended the scale, depth, and impact of Claire’s leadership, noting that elements of her work are already operating at a level associated with Principal Fellowship.

Many congratulations to Claire on this achievement and her continued commitment to advancing inclusive, high-quality teaching and learning!

Professor Andreas Kyprianou has been named among the founding fellows of the newly established Academy for the Mathematical Sciences (AcadMathSci) — a new national academy created to bring together the UK’s strongest mathematical scientists across academia, education, business, industry, and government to help solve some of the UK’s biggest challenges.

During the first week of the Easter break (30th March - 2nd April) the department welcomed 12 students to our annual work experience programme. The programme is option to year 10-12 students with an interest in Physics, with priority for local students and those from under-represented groups*. The programme forms part of the department's wider outreach work to broaden access to physics.

Researchers have identified previously unknown materials, including a new form of a widely studied clean-energy material, by carefully controlling and tracking how molecular precursors break down during heating.

Forests were growing on the now-submerged landmass of Doggerland thousands of years earlier than previously believed, according to a major new sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) study led by Professor Robin Allaby

The findings suggest that Doggerland may have provided a surprisingly hospitable refuge for plants, animals, and potentially humans, thousands of years before forests became widespread across Britain and northern Europe.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research reveals that temperate trees such as oak, elm, and hazel were present more than 16,000 years ago, and even detected DNA from a tree genus thought to have vanished from the region 400,000 years ago. The findings also show that parts of Doggerland survived major flooding events, including the Storegga tsunami around 8,150 years ago, and parts of the landscape remained above water as late as 7,000 years ago.

Warwick was strongly represented at the UKACM 2026 Conference through contributions from Professor Xueyu Geng’s group, highlighting cutting-edge research in computational mechanics. Dr Sijia Liu presented a unified phase-field framework for fracture, contact, and friction, and was awarded the Nina Cameron Graham Prize for Best Presentation by a Post-Doctoral Researcher. Professor Xueyu Geng also delivered a plenary lecture on advanced modelling of fracture in nonlinear materials.

Student ProjectLink opens in a new window teams at WMG, University of Warwick, have been celebrating a series of outstanding achievements across national and international competitions, alongside hosting impactful industry events that showcase the breadth of student talent at Warwick.

Warwick CyberLink opens in a new window, a new initiative bringing together students from across the University to work on cyber security problems and projects, has delivered exceptional results across four major cyber competitions:

• Finished in third place at the 9/12 Strategy ChallengeLink opens in a new window in Washington DC, competing against more than 30 teams from the US and internationally.

• Reached the semi-finals of the UK Cyber Leaders Challenge 2026Link opens in a new window with two teams, winning multiple awards including Best Briefing Note, Best Name and Emblem, and Best Teamwork.

• Secured 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th place with three teams out of 28 universities at Sheffield Siege 2026Link opens in a new window.

• Achieved a top-three finish at the pwnEd 7Link opens in a new window Finals in Edinburgh.

Huge congratulations to Professor Nikos Zygouras, who has been awarded one of this year's Frontiers of Science Awards.

Warwick Medical School has been awarded an A+ in the 2026 Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) – one of just two medical schools worldwide to achieve this distinction.

Two pieces of evidence they submitted were recently published in support of this: https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/148542/pdf/Link opens in a new window and https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/154425/pdf/Link opens in a new window"