Departmental news

The Advance HE Teaching Excellence Awards are among the most prestigious in the world of higher education — and WMG, University of Warwick, is proud to share that one of its own, Dr Freeha Azmat, has been honoured this year.

An Associate Professor and Reader in Engineering Education at WMG, Dr Azmat has been named a National Teaching Fellow for her outstanding innovations in engineering education and curriculum design, as well as her steadfast commitment to inclusion.

Freeha is now one of only three academics at WMG to have received Advance HE’s National Teaching Fellowship Award; she joins Professor Robin Clark, Pro-Dean International, and Professor Margaret Low, Director of Outreach and Participation, as a fellow.

Congratulations to Joe Creegen who received The Ogden Trust award for exceptional contribution to Physics outreach highlighting his dedication and ongoing support of the department's outreach work.

Congratulations to Dr Rebecca Nealon (previously Astronomy and Astrophysics Group) who has recently relocated to Monash University, Melbourne and has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship.

Dr Nealon's project titled 'Solving the mysteries of warped discs to reveal how planets are born in evolving star systems' will delve into the origins of planet formation in warped discs. Planets are born in dusty, swirling gas discs called protoplanetary discs. However, the process by which these planets are created is still poorly understood and recent observations of discs show interesting geometries like warps. Dr Nealon's project will use these warps to explain how and when planets are born.

Congratulations to Sihui Zhong who has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society Keith Runcorn Thesis Prize 2024 for her PhD thesis titled “Decayless Kink Oscillations of Solar Coronal Loops”, completed at CFSA under the supervision of Professor Valery Nakariakov.

The Keith Runcorn Thesis Prize is awarded to the best doctoral thesis in geophysics on an annual basis.

The Warwick Awards for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE) recognise and celebrate the roles of Warwick staff and students connecting with the public—locally, nationally, and globally.

Congratulations to Dr Saif Ul IslamLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window, a Research Fellow in Cyber Systems Engineering at WMG, University of Warwick, who has been named a ‘2024 Top Scholar’ by ScholarGPS.

The honour recognises Dr Islam’s outstanding contributions to engineering and computer science – especially in the fields of fog computingLink opens in a new window and wireless sensor networksLink opens in a new window, which he is ranked 26th and 143rd in the world respectively.

Congratulations to all those who have formally been awarded Doctor of Philosophy in Physics:

Jorge Fernández Fernández

Stefan Katundi

Billy Shrive

Daniel Swinnock

Congratulations to those who have been awarded a Master of Science (by Research) in Physics:

Adam Counsell

Taf Zivave

Congratulations to Professor Valery Nakariakov, from our Centre for Fusion, Space & Astrophysics who has been awarded £2.1 million from the European Research Council (ERC). The ERC AdG project aims to transformatively advance our understanding of the long-standing mystery of why the Sun's outer atmosphere - the corona - is heated to millions of degrees.

Congratulations to a group of female engineering students who have been named as finalists at the Autocar Great Women: Rising Stars awards.

There was a total of seven WMG Degree Apprenticeship students, recognised in the Apprentice category, with six employed by JLR and one from Bentley.

Three of the students, Erin Purewal; Amy Flavell and Keishe Gopikrishna, are studying on the BSc Digital and Technology Solutions (DTSLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window) programme.

A further four, Alexandra Spurway, Beth Daniel, Charlotte Bradford and Emily Ruscoe, are studying on the BEng Applied Professional Engineering Programme (APEPLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window) programme.

New funding has been awarded to Prof Tony Arber, Dr Keith Bennett, Dr Chris Brady and Dr Erwin Verwichte (University of Warwick) as part of a collaboration with the University of Exeter (lead institution), University of Sheffield, University of Cambridge and University of Glasgow.