Huge congratulations to Robb Johnston, Technical Services Manager who has been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2023 New Year Honours List. The British Empire Medal is awarded for meritorious and 'hands-on' service to the local community. Robb has been awarded a BEM for his contribution to Physics. Robb commented on the news of his award "I was very surprised and honoured to receive it."

Robb has worked in the department for 39 years in February and oversees the management of technical support staff and the building's critical services, infrastructure, and maintenance.

Dr Xianguo Lu and Dr John Back have received funding from Science Technology and Facilities Council (STFC) for two PhD studentships for 3.5 years with top up funding provided by the University. The studentships will allow the students access to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL), one of Europe’s largest multidisciplinary scientific research laboratories and the UK’s national centre for experimental particle physics.

The Particle Physics Department at RAL recruit 5-11 graduates every year, and each student is registered for a degree at a partner University.

Dr Back's project is titled "Physics studies for the Muon Collider target system" and the student will study and optimise the pion-to-muon production yields and radiation dose (energy deposition rates) for the target system that is being designed for the Muon Collider, which has great potential to be a future facility for high-energy physics research. The student would spend time both at Warwick and at RAL, working in partnership with Dr. Chris Densham's High Power Targets Group that is at the leading edge of target engineering, with the possibility of visits to CERN.

Dr Lu’s project is titled ‘Next-generation neutrino experiments in nuStorm’ and will evaluate and optimise the nuSTORM neutrino physics capabilities for processes in and beyond the Standard Model. The student would spend time both at Warwick and at the RAL with the possibility of long-term visits to CERN and working alongside physicists in the CERN neutrino group.

The positions will start in Autumn 2023. Applications are now open, with a deadline of 2^nd February. Find out more.

Professor Animesh Datta has been awarded funding through the EPSRC New Horizons initiative, working alongside Dr Tom Gur from the Department of Computer Science titled 'Property Testing for Quantum Engineering (ProTeQE). In addition to advancing the building of quantum computers, ProTeQE will nourish basic curiosity. Quantum mechanics, our present fundamental theory of Nature, is inherently probabilistic, and non-local. When these concepts interface with those of property testing and approximate decision-making, the outcomes could impact the foundations of our understanding of the laws of Nature. In particular, ProTeQE may eventually shed light on an abiding question: Are all fundamental laws of Nature (such as quantum mechanics) efficiently testable?