Departmental news

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

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.

In outreach & engagement news, a team of Physics staff led by Oksana Trushkevych (including Gavin Bell, Rachel Edwards, Tim Cunningham and Sue Burrows) presented “Resonate: a string, a concert hall, a universe” for the on-campus Resonate festival, the culmination of the University's celebrations for Coventry City of Culture.

The word resonate was on everyone’s lips, but people did not really talk about resonance in the physics sense of the word (there are some pretty iffy technical definitions even in the most reputable online dictionaries!). So the team set out to correct this and prepared an interactive lecture-performance, drawing on their current research as well as their teaching on The Science of Music module for IATL. PhD students from the Ultrasound group helped to move equipment and instruments, such as theremin and laser harp, to the Arts Centre’s Studio Theatre, and Gentian Mouron-Adams (a Physics undergraduate) demonstrated the Rubens tube. We talked about bridges, earthquakes, musical instruments, concert halls, MRI, seeing resonance, seeing with resonance, using resonance to hear... Activities included “singing” with balloons, “feeling” a piece of original music by Gavin through balloons and a “decipher the message” challenge relying on the natural reverberation of our teaching labs. We celebrated Delia Derbyshire, the electronic music pioneer from Coventry, who created the original Dr Who theme. We also talked about stars singing (actual stars, not celebs, and why we can’t hear them) and the universe being a set of resonances (well, if you are a string theorist). The event was aimed at children 8+ and received very positive feedback from attendees, young and grown up, who all made a lot of noise during and after the show.

Congratulations to Elizabeth Sharp who was awarded first prize for her presentation at the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) PhD seminar in Manchester on Tuesday 29^th March. Elizabeth's work focuses on using non-contact ultrasonic transducers to excite and then measure the resonant frequencies of metal containers that hold special nuclear materials, in order to measure changes internal pressure changes that can arise as a result of various chemical and nuclear reactions of the contents whilst the containers are in long term storage. There is a risk that in certain situations a build up of pressure in a container could cause the container to fail. Currently, the best approach that the industry have is to try and detect deformation of the cans by optical means, which can be difficult and is not particularly sensitive at early stages of pressurisation. Elizabeth has designed and manufactured sensors and developed instrumentation for performing measurements on these types of containers (filled with inert material to simulate the real content mass and density). She has performed a range of experiments and finite element simulations that confirm the characteristics of the detected resonant modes are she has shown how measuring changes in resonant mode behaviour can be used to obtain quantitative information on the internal pressure of the can. The NDA and Sellafield are interested in taking this technology further, with a view to deployment in nuclear material storage facilities in the longer term.

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.

On Monday 28th March, staff from the department will attend our annual Christmas lunch, which has been delayed from December 2021 due to government guidelines. We're looking forward to celebrating our lunch after this being postponed for the last two years.

We are deeply saddened to share the news of the death of Robert Andrzejewski, a first year Physics student and a valued member of the department.

Rachel Edwards, Robert’s personal tutor, described him as a very likeable and gentle young man who played an active role in his tutorial group. He was developing his passion for physics and was exploring a newly found ambition of working in teaching.

He will be greatly missed.

We know this news will cause distress and upset and would like to express our sympathy to Robert’s family, friends and peers.

If you would like support, please visit the Wellbeing Support Service web pages. Students can access support via the Wellbeing portal or on 024 76 575570, ext. 75570, and staff can access support via the Staff Wellbeing Hub and the Employee Assistance Programme. The Chaplaincy are also able to provide bereavement support to those of any faith who may be affected by the sad news.

We will share further news of Robert’s family’s wishes and arrangements when we are able.

A book of condolence is set up to share memories of Robert and messages of condolence to one another and Robert’s family. Your entries will eventually be printed and gifted to Robert's family.

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.

Once again, our team in Physics alongside other departments are back to entertain and amaze audiences with experiments and an insight into the some of the world class research that we do. Don't forget to book your tickets to attend some fun for all of the family.

Lectures will take place on Monday 29 November and Monday 6 December at 7pm, and will be BSL Interpreted.

Find out more information and book your tickets.

Listen to Professor Sandra Chapman's inspiring talk as she speaks to Adrian Chiles on BBC5 live radio about her research as Director of Centre for Fusion, Space and Astrophysics, and how she became interested in Physics.

You can listen to Sandra on BBC5 live from 02:44:25