Professor Phil Woodruff has been awarded the IUVSTA Prize for Science 2019.

The prize was awarded for "outstanding contributions to deepening our understanding of the structure of surface through the development and application of broadly applicable tools now widely available to the surface science community".

The IUVSTA Prize for Science is given every three years to recognize and encourage outstanding internationally acclaimed experimental and/or theoretical research in the fields of interest to the International Union for Vacuum Science, Technique and Applications (IUVSTA). The prize will be presented at their flagship conference, the International Vacuum Congress (IVC-21) in Malmö, Sweden July 1-5, 2019, where Phil will give a plenary lecture.

A fragment of a planet that has survived the death of its star has been discovered by astronomers in a disc of debris formed from destroyed planets, which the star ultimately consumes.

The discovery, reported in the journal Science, is the first time that scientists have used spectroscopy to discover a solid body in orbit around a white dwarf, using subtle variations in the emitted light to identify additional gas that the planetesimal is generating.

A facility that allows scientists to use x-rays to examine materials for purposes as diverse as reducing corrosion on metal artefacts to re-growing teeth from stem cells is set for a multi-million pound upgrade.

The Universities of Warwick and Liverpool have been awarded a further £7.2million to upgrade and operate the XMaS (X-ray Materials Science) beamline, which is a National Research Facility. The facility has received new funding from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to further studies into the atomic and microscopic structures of materials and their properties under different conditions at length scales of ten thousand times smaller than the thickness of a human hair.

Fifty new PhD students will tackle pressing societal challenges ranging from nanoscale devices, new catalysts, superalloys, smart fluids and energy from fusion thanks to an investment of £5.5M in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The newly announced Centre for Doctoral Training in Modelling of Heterogeneous Systems (HetSys) will be based at the University of Warwick and will attract top research talent from across the UK and internationally to the Midlands.

The unique cohort experience and bespoke training programme including transferable computing skills will enable students to work across the departments of Physics, Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics and the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG). HetSys will train enthusiastic students from across the physical sciences who enjoy using their mathematical skills and thinking flexibly to solve complex problems. Engagement from 14 industrial and 12 international partners keen to collaborate with HetSys shows the fresh approach has already resonated beyond academia.

The Centre will be directed by Professor Julie Staunton from the Department of Physics. Speaking about the Centre, Professor Staunton said “The message from our partners is that HetSys is very timely and ideally positioned to have a big impact. Most importantly the key players are the PhD students who will drive the success of HetSys. They will inspire new ideas, approaches and innovation and become future leaders in extending and developing new technologies of national importance.”

Warwick’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research, Professor Pam Thomas, said “HetSys builds on Warwick’s strong interdisciplinary roots, including the Centre for Scientific Computing and the Warwick Centre for Predictive Modelling. We are excited to be home to HetSys, which will help to promote a collaborative and inclusive research computing culture in the UK and internationally”.

For more information on HetSys see https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/hetsys
contact Julie Staunton (Director) J.B.Staunton@warwick.ac.uk phone 024 7652 3381
or James Kermode (Co-director) J.R.Kermode@warwick.ac.uk, phone 024 7652 8614

Image credit: Gabriele Sosso, University of Warwick

The University has signed an agreement with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU) to establish a new framework that enables all interested departments to offer a joint PhD programme.

Physics is the first department to set up a Joint PhD programme under this agreement, organised by John Hanna.

New research by a team led by Dr Farzana Meru has a way of finally telling whether newly forming planets are migrating within the disc of dust and gas that typically surrounds stars or whether they are simply staying put in the same orbit around the star.