Congratulations to all Physics students graduating on Wednesday 26 July. Whatever next chapter awaits you, be sure to keep in touch with Warwick and our ever-growing community of alumni.

The Global Network on Sustainability in Space, GNOSIS, founded by and based at Warwick, supports the global scientific community to apply their knowledge to achieving sustainability in space. In the four years since the launch of GNOSIS it has grown to be a diverse global network of over 650 members from academia, the space sector and government, who work together to address the impact of debris and space weather on the rapidly growing spacecraft population.

Space sustainability leaders from across the globe, including the Chair of GNOSIS Katherine Courtney, were gathered in London on 28^th June for a series of events hosted by the UK government and King Charles III.

Read more.

Undergraduate student, Phoebe Ryder attended the World Congress on Undergraduate Research (WorldCUR) which took place at the University of Warwick campus in early April. The WorldCUR brings together the world's best undergraduate researchers to focus on some of the most significant challenges facing the global community. The students attending are invited to share their research, discuss global issues, and create or strengthen international research partnerships.

Phoebe, a third year Physics with Astrophysics student, presented her poster on the characterisation of a binary star system that was identified as a possible supernova progenitor, with the aim of finding out whether the system had sufficient combined mass to go supernova. She said,

"It was an amazing opportunity to meet students from around the globe. There was a vast range of research being showcased and it was really inspiring and encouraging to hear others at the same educational stage to myself talk so passionately about their own research. Everyone I met was really supportive and I feel I have gained a lot of confidence in my presentation skills from the experience. Also, presenting my research to people with a wide range of previous knowledge on astrophysics, but the same enthusiasm to learn, allowed me to practice presenting to many different types of audiences.

I have learned so much from all the other delegates, about their own research and their presentation styles and techniques. I also learnt a lot from the keynote speaker, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter's presentation. He was sharing advice on how best to communicate your research to a variety of audiences, particularly his thoughts on how to simplify your research to convey the gist without losing accuracy."

STEM for Britain is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition with an aim to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early career researchers and was held at the House of Commons on Monday 6th March, 2023. Dr Lauren DoyleLink opens in a new window was selected as a finalist within the Physics category, to represent her research on stellar flares from solar-type and low mass stars where she found these events don’t correlate with starspots like they do on the Sun. Overall, this suggests other stars have much more complex surfaces compared to the Sun which posses questions when thinking about the habitability of other planets. The event was attended by people from across the UK with representation from many institutions and organisations including The Institute of Physics and Warwick. During the event, Lauren got the opportunity to chat to lots of researchers across Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry about their research, with lots of interest from the judges about her own research. Although Lauren didn't place in the competition she told us:

"Despite this, I am really glad I went as it was an amazing experience where I was one of 20 finalists selected to represent Physics research in the UK. I was extremely proud to represent the Physics department at Warwick University and hope that others from the department will apply to attend next year."

Congratulations to Lauren for representing the department and her research at the event.

Find out more about STEM for Britain.Link opens in a new window

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.

We are sorry to confirm the death of our friend and colleague Professor Tom Marsh. Our hearts go out to Tom's family, and to all his friends and colleagues.

There is an online book of condolence that is open to anyone who wishes to contribute.

Colleagues have written a tribute to Tom's extensive achievements and his many contributions to the department.

We are sorry to update that the body found by research teams last Thursday has been identified as that of our friend and colleague Professor Tom Marsh.

Our hearts go out to Tom's family, and to all his friends and colleagues.

There is a community update available on Insite, accompanied by a departmental tribute to Tom's extensive achievements and his many contributions to the department. An online book of condolence will follow shortly.

We are very sorry to share the news, as reported by the Chilean police, that a body was found during the search near La Silla on 10 November 2022.

The identity of the person has not yet been formally confirmed, but Tom Marsh’s family has been informed, and our thoughts are with them at this extremely difficult time.

A community updateLink opens in a new window is available from the Provost, Chris Ennew.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the operation of the UK’s XMaS (X-ray Materials Scattering) user facility at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble. It has been directed for all that time from Warwick and Liverpool University Physics Departments and has provided hundreds of UK scientists (and many from further afield) with the opportunity to do leading research in a truly world-leading international centre.

XMaS came about when the first of the world’s ultra-bright synchrotrons was being designed and built in Grenoble, France in the early nineties. The ESRF’s bending magnets were originally designed to simply steer the electron beam around the synchrotron ring between the newly developed insertion devices. It was soon realised that they were a potent source of synchrotron radiation which could exploited as new beamlines if funded by national groups. The UK took advantage, with Malcolm Cooper, here at Warwick, and Bill Stirling, first at Keele and then Liverpool, asked to devise a plan and to bid for EPSRC funds. Needless to say the first back-of-the-envelope designs were, with hindsight, rather naive and embarrassingly under-costed but detailed design work by our small project team generated a viable blueprint, which has since stood the test of time.

When it opened for users in the autumn of 1997 it was never, in our wildest dreams, envisaged that it might be still operational 25 years later. Of course XMaS has undergone a continuous programme of improvement and upgrades over the years with including developing sophisticated sample environments and advances in x-ray metrology. A major refurbishment was necessitated by the recent comprehensive upgrade of the ESRF and as a consequence we now have what is virtually a new beamline and fit for purpose for many years to come.

Initially the science case for the beamline was devoted for the study of magnetic materials, very much in vogue in the 1990s. In fact the acronym XMaS stood for X-ray Magnetic Scattering but the facility has since evolved to encompass a broader materials programme (polymers, liquid crystals, catalysts, etc.) using a variety of techniques (spectroscopies, wide and small angle scattering etc.). The facility has four permanent staff and two postdocs on site, who carry out their own research as well as help the visiting research groups run a very diverse range of experiments. Following the retirement of Malcolm Cooper in 2010, XMaS has been led from Warwick by Tom Hase with admin support from Sarah Jarratt.

The Physics department will be hosting an event at the Warwick La Palma Observatory facilities today, bringing together key Warwick staff, delegations from the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), and the observatory host institution, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). The visit will showcase the Warwick facilities and further develop the unique opportunities provided by our instrumentation platform at one of the best observing sites in the world, with a particular focus on the topical area of Space Domain Awareness, an emerging activity at Warwick.