Physics Department News
A new telescope to look for exoplanets
Warwick astronomers have begun searching for small planets around bright stars using an array of twelve robotically-controlled telescopes. The telescopes, which form a wide-field observing system called the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS), are designed to detect the slight dimming of a star when a planet passes across its face. The NGTS team aims to find planets the size of Neptune down to twice the size of the Earth. Dr Peter Wheatley, one of the NGTS project leaders, said "The NGTS discoveries, and follow-up observations by telescopes on the ground and in space, will be important steps in our quest to study the atmospheres and composition of small planets such as the Earth.”
Read more in press releases from ESO and Warwick.
See also regional BBC News coverage.
XMaS Grenoble Trip for AS Physics Students in April 2015.
Students have been selected from a competition to win a 4 day trip to Grenoble to visit the ESRF, ILL and XMaS Beamline. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/xmas_comes_early
“Science, Maths and Music – soon at the Physics Department”
Gavin Bell, together with Cellist Nick Roberts from Warwick’s Coull Quartet and departmental colleagues Edwards, Harrison, Pounds and Roemer, has been awarded an IATL fellowship to “develop interdisciplinary teaching material around the links between science, mathematics and music“. The aim is to engage with students and academics across different faculties and to plan interdisciplinary undergraduate teaching in the area of science/maths/music. The fellowship builds on last year’s joint premiere of Edward Cowie’s Quintet for 21st Century Oboe and Quartet “The Colours of Dark Light”, a work directly inspired by physics. Congratulations to all involved in the fellowship!
Excellent outcome of REF 2014
Warwick has one of the top 10 research environments in the UK for Physics, as assessed by REF 2014. Research papers submitted by our academics were considered to be of extremely high quality, with 96% judged to be at least "internationally excellent" and a quarter "world leading" (4*). Amongst English physics departments the overall output profile is second only to Oxford and Warwick Physics is ranked 6th in the UK.
Over 92% of academic staff in the Department were included in the REF2014 submission, to either the Physics (57 staff) or General Engineering (6 staff) panels. On the Research Power scale, which measures the depth of quality, Warwick Physics is ranked 9th in the UK and on overall GPA appears 12th.