Session summaries

low is an overview of each session of the conference, where there are optional sessions you will need to select your preferred session.

Sunday 6th April

Arrival

Arrival at University of Warwick from 16.00

Head to Senate House Reception to register and check-in to accommodation

Look out for our signs and Physics student ambassadors wearing purple tops!

Free time until welcome

Welcome

Welcome to the conference by the Provost in Panorama Bar.

Emma Flynn (She/Her)

Professor Emma Flynn is Provost at the University of Warwick where she supports the Vice-Chancellor in the academic leadership of the University.

A key aspect of her role is leading the development and delivery of the University’s academic strategy, ensuring that Warwick remains competitive and relevant within HE and beyond. She is responsible for the efficient and effective use of academic resources, including departmental resources, capital planning and space management, and information resources.

Emma has worked closely with local and national bodies to support the development and utilisation of world-leading research to have significant disciplinary, societal, environmental and economic impact. She has been a member of working groups aimed at improving international partnerships, global talent attraction and retention, and the role of place in innovation strategies. Within the university sector she has overseen international recruitment campaigns, established integrated planning and strategy structures, and led culture change agendas.

Dinner

Monday 7th April

Welcome

Opening of the conference

Mark Newton

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Daniela Bortoletto

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Keynote 9.30-10.30

Julia Stawarz

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Panel 11.00-12.00

The Impact of a Physics Degree on a Career in Industry with Warwick alumni followed by an interactive panel discussion.

Overview tbc:

Speaker bios and pronouns tbc:

Ruhi Chitre

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Ulrika D'Haenens-Johansson (She/Her)

Dr. Ulrika F.S. D’Haenens-Johansson is the Senior Manager of Diamond Research at the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). She joined the New York laboratory as a Research Scientist in 2011, following her Masters and PhD degrees in Physics at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Her area of research is the defect physics of natural, treated and laboratory-grown diamond materials using optical and EPR spectroscopy, with particular focus on developing methods to ensure that they can be identified and separated, maintaining transparency within the trade. She is currently also managing the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) lab at GIA, working towards creating reproducible growth procedures for the production of gem-quality diamonds. She has published peer-reviewed scientific articles in journals including Gems & Gemology, Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Physical Review B, and Applied Optics.

Abi Graham

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Hannah Hatcher

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Ayesha Irfan

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Stephanie Liggins (She/Her)

Current role at Element Six.

Tishtrya Mehta

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Panel 13.30-14.30

Life in Academia.

Geetha Balakrishnan

Geetha Balakrishnan is a Professor in the Physics Department at the University of Warwick. She has worked at Warwick since 1991. She has previously worked as a Research Fellow in the Physics Department at Warwick (1986-1988). Her research interests are in the growth of single crystals of superconductors, magnetic, and related materials by a variety of techniques, including a large programme of work using optical furnaces for the floating zone technique. Also low temperature laboratory measurements and neutron scattering studies.

Sandra Chapman

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Nishtha Chopra

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Wing Ying Chow

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Farzana Meru

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Rebecca Milot

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Ingrid Pelisoli

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Talk 14.30-15.30

Creativity in Research: Understanding the Big Picture through Art and Science

Science and art are both deeply human endeavours to understand and describe the world, each contributing to our collective knowledge through creativity. While they have enriched each other throughout history, integrating them within today’s university structures remains challenging. In this talk, I will share my journey as an interdisciplinary researcher bridging astrophysics, art, and social science. I will also discuss my research and practice in fostering creativity and inclusivity through art-science collaboration, highlighting how this approach accelerates new ideas and deepens our understanding of intangible astrophysical phenomena.

Ulrike Kuchner

Ulrike Kuchner is an astrophysicist, artist, curator, and interdisciplinary researcher at the University of Nottingham. She co-founded the ARTlab Nottingham to integrate artistic methods into scientific research and studies art-science collaborations for mutual benefits and co-leads the international SEADS (Space Ecologies Art and Design) collective, known for its innovative, transdisciplinary projects.In her astrophysics research, Ulrike investigates how galaxies form and evolve as part of larger structures in the Universe. Her art practice and research delve into the artistic, social, and philosophical dimensions of scientific knowledge production, framing images and simulations as social constructs that challenge the concept of objective truths. This work sparks critical dialogue on the ethics and freedoms of art and science in uncertain times.

Talk 16.00-16.45

Title tbc - Medical Physics

Overview of session tbc

Angharad Ganguli

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Jenny Spiga

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Tours (Optional)

Option 1: University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire Medical Physics visit (Capacity: X)

overview of session tbc - what time will this arrive back on campus

Aaron Bedder

My name is Aaron Bedder and I am a Principal Clinical Scientist working for the NHS with over 15 years’ experience in the field of radiotherapy physics. I have worked in all domains of radiotherapy physics, and my current specialism centres on research and development including clinical trials. As part of my role I act as a medical physics expert, using my knowledge, training and experience to ensure the delivery of a high quality and safe therapeutic service.

I graduated from the University of Warwick in 2009 with a degree in physics, and have since obtained a master’s degree from the University of Leeds in medical physics and a PhD qualification from the University of Manchester as a Doctor of Clinical Science.

Option 2: The Marsh Observatory, Astronomy outreach with the planetarium and interactive star table (title tbc)

Overview of session tbc

Tuesday 8th April

Talk 9.30-10.30

title tbc: Media and communications

Session overview tbc

Rosie Eaton

Rosie is a Broadcast Journalist with nearly 20 years’ experience in BBC Radio. She has worked as a presenter, producer, newsreader, reporter and researcher. She also teaches regularly on the University of Warwick’s Postgraduate Science Communication courses, and particularly values the opportunity to work with participants to improve their confidence, narrative and interview skills.

Sessions 11.00-11.50 (Options)

Option 1: Thrive

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Sarah is a resourceful and creative thinker, and project manager. Sarah is also an experienced careers guidance professional and former training consultant, with excellent interpersonal and coaching skills, highly experienced at supporting and empowering young people. Adept at engaging with a variety of stakeholders, Sarah sources an inspiring range of guest speakers for the main Thrive programme, who help bring Thrive™ life and with it’s continued growth has expanded to reach under-represented students of all genders. Sarah has a proven ability to create positive experiences for students to connect, learn, be inspired and motivated; driving forward a programme resulting in clear and impactful benefits is something that brings her much satisfaction.

Option 2: Equity and Inclusivity Practices in Academia

Talk 12.00-12.45 Talk 14.30-14.45 Activities 14.45-17.00 (Options) Conference dinner

Wednesday 9th April

Sessions 9.30-10.30 (Optional)

Option 1: A day in the life of a PhD student (tbc)

Geraldine Anis (She/Her)

Geraldine is currently in her final year of PhD studies in the Centre for Doctoral Training in Modelling of Heterogeneous Systems (HetSys) at the University of Warwick. Prior to pursuing a PhD, she received her MSc in Nanotechnology and BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Her current research focuses on the modelling of the deformation behaviour of Ni-based superalloys using atomistic simulations. Passionate about education, she has participated in a number of teaching activities since receiving her BSc. Geraldine also volunteers with Coding with Sophie, an award-winning outreach program, where she teaches children foundational coding skills and carries out various physics-based activities. Geraldine is eager to share her experiences and insights into pursuing a PhD as a woman in physics.

Freya Watson (She/Her)

I am a final year PhD student in the condensed matter physics cluster at Warwick. My research focuses on strain engineering of materials using ferroelastic domains in order to investigate the effect on electrical properties, and previously I studied strain engineering in semiconductors. I am also one of the EDI officers on the postgraduate committee.

Amena Faruqi (She/Her)

I am a PhD student in the Astronomy research group at the University of Warwick, studying the origins of planetary systems like our Solar System through the use of computational modelling. I completed my BSc in Physics at Imperial College London and worked as a software developer for 2 years before returning to university to do a PhD and pursue my interest in scientific research. Aside from my research, I am very interested in how academic institutions can be made more inclusive spaces to ensure that everyone has equal access to Physics and STEM as a whole.

Mairi O'Brien (She/Her)

Mairi is a fourth-year PhD student in the astronomy and astrophysics group at Warwick. Her work uses the nearby population of white dwarf stars to understand the evolution and properties of stars and planets. She uses telescopes such as Gaia, Hubble and the VLT to observe these nearby white dwarfs. Outside of her PhD work, she enjoys participating in outreach events including teaching coding to primary school children.

Saffron Tyler (She/Her)

I am a 4th year PhD student in the Diamond research group at the University of Warwick. I graduated with an MPhys from the University of Leicester in 2021, where I focused mostly on theoretical condensed matter physics. I then transitioned to experimental physics for my PhD. My current research investigates the properties of the nitrogen-vacancy centre; a point defect in diamond, whose ground state spin levels can be used as a qubit for quantum computing. My goal is to develop methods of increasing the spin lifetimes of these defects, as well as optically and electronically reading out their spin states.

Option 2: A career in teaching

Session overview tbc

Amanda Poole

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Sessions 11.00-11.45 (Optional)

Option 1 - Big data and AI in particle physics

Modern scientific experiments produce an unprecedented volume of data; this has necessitated a rapid evolution in our approach to analysing such datasets. This pair of interactive discussions will introduce some of the challenges the scientific communities face, using examples from the field of particle physics. The role of machine learning to perform data analysis will be introduced, looking at the specific example of artificial neural networks and their role interpreting data recorded by the latest generation of particle imaging detectors.

Nicole Skidmore

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John Marshall

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Option 2: Physics outreach

Session overview tbc

Ally Caldecote

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Rachel Edwards

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Talk 11.45-12.30

Personal branding (title tbc)

Session overview tbc

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Talk 12.30-12.45

June McCombie title tbc

overview tbc

June McCombie

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Closing remarks