Departmental news

The 2022 Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) will be hosted by the University of Warwick's Physics Department from Monday 11th July to Friday 15th July. Alongside the incredible science programme planned for attendees, the team have also organised an extensive public engagement programme on campus which is mostly free and completely open to the public.

Find out more about NAM and the events on offer.

Professor Steven Brown has commented in Chemistry World on the announcement of funding of more than £16 million from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) for a state-of-the-art 1.2 GHz spectrometer, building on the two 1 GHz systems that are already in place in the UK, including at the UK High-Field Solid-State NMR Facility.

Find out more in Chemistry World.

• Warwick is one of the top research environments in the UK for Physics (ranked 7^th), with all aspects considered to be conducive to producing either world-leading or internationally excellent research. This reflects the quality of facilities and infrastructure available to our researchers, and the supportive and inclusive working environment as demonstrated by our commitment to Juno/Athena Swan.
• 96.5% of our research papers submitted to REF2021 were judged to be at least "internationally excellent" (3* or 4*) and 45% (compared to 24% in REF2014) were "world-leading" (4*). This reflects the breadth and strength of research across our six research clusters.
• All our six impact case studies were considered to be either outstanding or very considerable in terms of their reach and significance.
• Warwick Physics is ranked 8^th for “research power” in the Times Higher Education REF2021 table. Research Power is a measure of the quality of our research multiplied by the number of researchers in the department. This is an excellent result.

Full results are published on the REF website.

Find out more on the University's REF results.

Professor Ray Dupree (Department of Physics, University of Warwick) would like to congratulate his son and collaborator Professor Paul Dupree (Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge) on the award of a European Research Council Advanced Grant EVOCATE. Working together over the last few years using solid state NMR they have made significant advances in the understanding of the molecular architecture of plants. The ERC EVOCATE project will allow the Cambridge and Warwick teams to study how the architecture of plant fibres changed over millions of years of evolution and to further develop solid state NMR for this research.

Find out more about EVOCATE.

Professor Tom Hase (Magnetic X-ray Scattering group), Co-Director of XMaS alongside Co-Director Dr Didier Wermeille (University of Liverpool) has developed materials aimed at secondary schools to learn about 'The power of X-rays in Material Science' at the European Synchrotron.

Check out the materials and find out more.

We are delighted to announce that we are in the process of building a observatory in the heart of the university campus. The building work started last month and is located at Cryfield Barn. We will be posting progress updates along with some images from site throughout the build process.

Find out more about the observatory.

Each year, our department offers a small number of work experience placements for students in Years 10-12. The placement will provide a broad insight into physics and what it would be like to work in a busy university physics department.

Applications are now invited for work experience taking place 11-14 April 2022 (inclusive).

Find out more about the work experience placement.

Launched in 2015, the XMaS Scientist Experience is a national competition for Year 12 UK identifying as female students to win an all expenses paid for 4 day trip to the ESRF in Grenoble. The Scientist Experience encourages students to consider science careers, foster a sense of community, and encourage self-belief.

Find out more about the Scientist Experience.

Watch the video from a previous visit.

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.

Find out more about Sandra's research and the award.

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.

Read more about the research projects.