Dept News

The 1st issue of the "Poincare" magazine, written by a team of Maths & Physics UG students, has recently been printed and is now also available online. A wide variety of articles has been included, from knots and topology to an introduction to quantum electrodynamics. Several pages of puzzles and problems are also scattered throughout, including a set of chess puzzles, and a cryptographic cipher for readers to crack.

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?

We are proud to announce our Athena SWAN Silver Award has been renewed for another five years. We would like to thank everyone who has helped with the progress we have made advancing gender equality in the department, with our Women in Physics group highlighted as an example of good practice.

Read our submission.

Professor Emma MacPherson was on Sky News International showcasing a new skin scanner which has the potential to transform the way skin cancer is detected and treated. Using pulses of light from the terahertz part of the light spectrum it will detect how far cancer that is not visible has spread under the skin. This will mean that surgical removal can be better planned, more effective and faster. This in turn will reduce patient waiting times and improve patient outcomes as well as reduce costs to the NHS.

Watch the Sky News video.