Research News
2022 PhD Thesis Prize Winners
Congratulations to our three 2022 PhD Thesis Prize Winners.
Congratulations to our three 2022 thesis prize winners:
Springer Thesis Prize
Recognising outstanding PhD research - Arnau Brossa Gonzalo
Winton Thesis Prize
Recognising outstanding astrophysical research - Ben Cooke
Faculty of Science Thesis Prize (Physics)
Recognising outstanding research from across the faculty - Sam Holt
Congratulations to PhD poster prize winners
Our second year PhD students showcased their research in a poster session on the Physics concourse on Wednesday 18th May. PhD students are really the powerhouse of research in the department and it was great to hear all about the fantastic progress they are making. We awarded poster prizes to Luke Smith (1st place), Manisha Islam and John Pontin (joint runners up) for their particularly fascinating, clear and enthusiastic poster presentations. Many thanks to all who took part in the event.
Knowledge Transfer Partnership led by Professor Steven Brown graded outstanding!
The recently finished Knowledge Transfer Partnership led by Professor Steven Brown from our NMR group funded by Innovate UK in partnership with AstraZeneca to improve pharmaceutical product quality and manufacturing processes has been graded as outstanding!
Professor Sandra Chapman awarded the 2022 Chapman Medal
Congratulations to Professor Sandra Chapman, who leads the Centre for Fusion Space and Astrophysics on receiving the 2022 Chapman Medal by the Royal Astronomical Society. Professor Chapman received this award for 'paradigm shifting' research into the physics of the solar wind and magnetosphere, our near-earth plasma environment.
Two European Research Council funding grants secured
Congratulations to Dr Rebecca Milot and Dr Matt Kenzie who have both secured European Research Council Starting Grants, following the first call for proposals under the EU's new R&I programme, Horizon Europe.
Dr Rebecca Milot has been awarded €2,473,363 to investigate one of the most promising new materials for solar energy conversion, metal halide perovskites.
Dr Matt Kenzie's award of €1,490,202 will aim to enhance our understanding of the physics underpinning the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, which is fundamental in explaining how our universe arrived at its present state.
Congratulations to the Physics Postdoc Prize Winners 2021
The nominations for the Physics Postdoc Prize 2021 were numerous and of an exceptionally high quality this year and it was incredibly difficult to select a “best” paper. After much deliberation the two winners are as follows:
Rosalie Thompson (Cresswell)
Importance of Water in Maintaining Softwood Secondary Cell Wall Nanostructure
Rosalie Cresswell, Ray Dupree, Steven P. Brown, Caroline S. Pereira, Munir S. Skaf, Mathias Sorieul, Paul Dupree, and Stefan Hill
Biomacromolecules 2021, 22, 11, 4669–4680 https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biomac.1c00937
Water is an integral part of wood; living wood can be deformed beyond its yield point without breaking whereas dried wood will fracture. Rehydration of dried wood does not restore its properties yet, prior to this work, there was no molecular level picture of water’s role. Rosalie led this paper which uses state-of-the-art multidimensional NMR supported by MD modelling to determine the irreversible molecular changes that occur upon drying. It presents a model of a hydrated cellulose microfibril and the changes occurring during the drying and rehydration. The paper has been enthusiastically received with approaching 1000 article views since publication in late October.
Ingrid Pelisoli
A hot subdwarf–white dwarf super-Chandrasekhar candidate supernova Ia progenitor
Ingrid Pelisoli , P. Neunteufel, S. Geier, T. Kupfer, U. Heber, A. Irrgang, D. Schneider, A. Bastian, J. van Roestel, V. Schaffenroth and B. N. Barlow
Nature Astronomy, 5, 1052–1061 (2021) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01413-0
Over twenty years ago, Type Ia thermonuclear supernovae were key to the discovery of the acceleration of the Universe, but their precise origin is a mystery. Ingrid led a paper published in Nature Astronomy presenting the discovery of a binary star whose 99-minute orbital period makes it an excellent candidate to host a thermonuclear supernova in the future. Ingrid and collaborators applied a combination of leading observational and theoretical techniques to map the future of this exciting system. With this detection, they constrained the supernova rate due to this particular type of binary, shedding light onto the origin of supernovae.