Physics Department News

The contribution of Warwick academics Steven Brown, Ray Dupree, John Hanna, Dinu Iuga and Józef Lewandowski to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee Inquiry into Leaving the EU has been published on the Parliament website. Steven Brown made the submission on behalf of over 20 UK scientists associated with the Warwick-hosted EPSRC-funded UK 850 MHz Solid-State NMR Facility. An article has been published on the Expert Comment page.

The Astronomy & Astrophysics group are currently advertising for three Assistant Professors researching in exoplanets to build on the Warwick involvement in ESA’s PLATO mission.

Applicants will have a strong research track record and be ready to build their own research team with the support of colleagues at Warwick.

Warwick has leading positions in the WASP and NGTS ground based transit experiments, membership of the ESA S mission CHEOPS board, and the Science Coordination of ESA’s PLATO mission (the PLATO Science office is being established at Warwick). It is expected that the successful candidates will take advantage of the opportunities presented by these experiments. One of these appointments could suit an applicant with a theoretical background. Suitable areas could include planetary atmospheres and orbital dynamics.

In addition to the above posts, we invite applications from outstanding scientists who either already hold an externally funded Research Fellowship or are seeking a top-class institution with which to apply for such a Fellowship within this research area.

You will have good communication skills and be willing to contribute to the teaching and administration of the Department. Assistant Professor is a tenure track position leading to appointment as an Associate Professor after successful completion of probation. Teaching and administration duties are reduced during the probationary period.

The University of Warwick maintains a global outlook and has affiliates around the globe. The Department of Physics will provide an exciting and highly supportive environment in which academics can develop their careers. We are fully committed to equality of opportunity and encourage application and enquiries from all suitably qualified candidates.

See here for more details and contact Professor Don Pollacco if you wish to discuss the posts.

Email: d.pollacco@warwick.ac.uk Tel: +44 24765 74329

We have studied the mobility of the multi-domain folding catalyst, protein disulphide-isomerase (PDI), by a coarse-graining approach based on flexibility. We analyse our simulations of yeast PDI (yPDI) using measures of backbone movement, relative positions and orientations of domains, and distances between functional sites. We find that there is interdomain flexibility at every interdomain junction but these show very different characteristics. The extent of interdomain flexibility is such that yPDI's two active sites can approach much more closely than is found in crystal structures — and indeed hinge motion to bring these sites into proximity is the lowest energy normal mode of motion of the protein. The flexibility predicted for yPDI (based on one structure) includes the other known conformation of yPDI and is consistent with (i) the mobility observed experimentally for mammalian PDI and (ii) molecular dynamics. We also observe intradomain flexibility and clear differences between the domains in their propensity for internal motion. Our results suggest that PDI flexibility enables it to interact with many different partner molecules of widely different sizes and shapes, and highlights considerable similarities of yPDI and mammalian PDI.