Departmental news

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.

 A collaboration of physicists (led by Dr Marina Lafarga Magro and Yoshi Eschen) marked a milestone by holding the first ever Orbyts conferenceLink opens in a new window at the University of Warwick on 20^th of June this year.

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.

In June, a team of enthusiastic physicists attended the annual Big Bang Fair at Birmingham's NEC, aiming to spark young students interest in science and future careers in the field.

The Big Bang Fair is the UK's biggest celebration of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) for schools and runs for three days each year, with thousands of year 6, 7 and 8 students in attendance. The team from the Department of Physics were also joined by colleagues from the Department of Engineering, Department of Chemistry and Warwick Manufacturing Group from the University of Warwick.

Watch the video of the team at The Big Bang Fair.

Earlier this July, we proudly hosted our annual Scientist Experience trip funded by the X-Ray Material Science Beamline at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)Link opens in a new window in Grenoble.

The trip offers sixteen female Year 12 Physics students from across the UK a once in a lifetime, all-expenses paid opportunity to visit the prestigious European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

The discovery was first published online in Nature Astronomy in April, by then PhD student, and now postdoc, James Munday and has since been featured on the cover of Nature Astronomy’s June issue. James, supervised by Dr Ingrid Pelisoli and Prof Pier-Emmanuel Tremblay, discovered a type Ia supernova progenitor within a mere 50 parsecs. Type Ia supernovae are standardisable candles used to measure cosmological distances and were instrumental in the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe (Nobel Prize in Physics 2011).

The 75th UK Diamond Research Conference was held at the University of Warwick from 7th to 10th July 2025, bringing together over 120 delegates from academia and industry to explore the latest advancements in diamond science and technology.

Dr Iqbal Dulloo, currently a molecular cell biologist at the University of Oxford, has been awarded a prestigious five-year Medical Research Council (MRC) Career Development Award. He will join the University of Warwick’s School of Life Sciences in late September 2025 to launch his independent research group.

Dr Dulloo’s research explores how cells send and receive signals to maintain healthy function. When this communication breaks down, it can lead to diseases like cancer or neurodegenerative conditions. His recent discovery showed that an enzyme complex, previously thought to carry out a routine task, also plays a role in regulating gene activity by releasing a key messenger protein inside cells.

At Warwick, he will investigate how widespread this hidden signalling pathway is and how it may be exploited by viruses during infection.

Dr Dulloo said: “I am honoured to receive this award and delighted to be joining the University of Warwick. Understanding how cells communicate could unlock new ways to tackle disease. This fellowship will allow me to pursue fundamental questions in an exciting area of cell biology that remains under-explored but full of promise. I look forward to building a collaborative team and contributing to the vibrant scientific community at Warwick.”

Professor Miriam Gifford, Head of the School of Life Sciences, said: “We are delighted to welcome Dr Dulloo. His pioneering work will be a fantastic addition to our cell biology and host-pathogen research directions, and we are excited to support the next stage of his career.”

On Saturday 5^th July, the department celebrated it’s 60^th birthday celebration with a vibrant day of reflection as one of the University’s founding departments, and looked towards a bright future for Physics at Warwick as we continue to work to make a better world together.