Friday 8 March, Linlithgow Burgh Halls, West Lothian

Taking place on International Women's Day, but this event is about so much more than women and gender. Come along to hear from people's lived experience, and explore the things we do well and the things we can improve on, in relation to gender, race, age, neurodiversity, and so much more.

Keynote: Dr Clara Barker, Materials Scientist at Oxford University and Inclusion & Diversity Representative for the IOP. 
"Scattering Atoms, Ions and Perceptions"

Speaker: Prof Sonja Franke-Arnold, University of Glasgow
"Being a parent in academia"

This week, the LHCb experiment at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announced the discovery of five new resonances (very short-lived particles), known as excited Ωc (Omega_c) baryons. Baryons are composed of three fundamental particles called quarks. Well-known examples of baryons are the protons and neutrons that are found in atomic nuclei. A proton is made of two “up” quarks and one “down” quark, bound together via the strong nuclear force. The Ωc baryons are similar, but they are made from two “strange” quarks and one “charm” quark. These are like heavier (i.e., more massive) versions of the up and down quarks. The Ωc baryons do not exist inside atomic nuclei and can only be produced on earth in certain particle physics experiments such as the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Outstanding Academics, Celebrated Professionals and Royalty Join Scotland’s National Academy

The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is delighted to announce that HRH The Duke of Cambridge has been elected to become an RSE Royal Honorary Fellow. We much look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with HRH, as we have with our Patron, Her Majesty The Queen, and our other Royal Fellows.¹

The SUPA Careers Event 2016 took place at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh on 6th December. In keeping with the format used successfully in the past, we had a range of speakers from various industries who gave a brief introduction and then took part in round table sessions where delegates had the opportunity to chat with the speakers, ask questions, and get an insight into a variety of career options. 

The SUPA careers event is designed to demonstrate the wide range of careers open to people with a physics PhD. The 80 student attendees heard from nine speakers who have careers in everything from satellites to software start-ups, including academia, finance, patent law and medical physics. Following brief introductions, the speakers spent 10 minutes with small groups of students to discuss their careers in detail before moving on to speak to other groups. 

CV clinics were provided by Vishanti Fox of the Institute of Physics (IoP), and careers advisors Keith Kilgore (HW), Helen Stringer (UoE) and Katrina Garder (UoG).

An exhibition of Scottish Physics employers included representatives from M2 Lasers, Textesor, Leonardo, Coherent and the IoP.

In 2012 the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics Group opened the MagTEM facility at the University of Glasgow. MagTEM is a JEOL ARM (Atomic Resolution Microscope) 200cF which is a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) with aberration correction provided by CEOS. Aberration correction allows world leading performance of this instrument, and the capability of the instrument is summarised below:

University of Glasgow's LISA Pathfinder team has been awarded The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation and the British Interplanetary Society's 2016 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for "Space Achievement in Academic Research or Study".

The Welcome Event for new SUPA students was held on 28th October at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh. First year students from across SUPA came to learn about the excellent research in SUPA, to meet colleagues in other universities and to receive advice from their peers.

Scottish-born scientists, David Thouless and Michael Kosterlitz, along with Duncan Haldane from London, have been awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in physics for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter. David, a Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, originates from Bearsden.  Michael Kosterlitz, a physics professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island comes from Aberdeen.  SUPA has extended congratulations to both.

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2016/

The Scottish Centre for the Application of Plasma-Based Accelerators, SCAPA, creates a state-of-the-art environment for collaborative research that will support research, development and application of laser-driven accelerators and next-generation radiation sources. It will promote collaboration between academia and industry, and enable engagement of the UK research community with large international projects. SCAPA houses two high power lasers to drive accelerators and radiation sources, one high-repetition laser for target manufacture and diagnostics, 7 beam lines in three shielded areas, a control room and preparation laboratories.

On 30th September 2016 Researchers from across SUPA took part in Explorathon2016, Scotland’s contribution to European researcher’s night. A one night celebration of research, Explorathon was an extravaganza of discovery, debate and entertainment. Events were held in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews. 

In St Andrews, Valerie Bentivegna (Dundee) presented her biophysics research as standup comedy in a Bright Club set. Helen Cammack, Jonathan Keeling, Brendon Lovett, Kyle Ballantine and Aidan Strathearn (St Andrews), presented “Quantum digits and dances” at the Byre theatre, explaining the mysteries of quantum mechanics. 

In Edinburgh Charlotte Desvages and Reggie Harrision from the acoustics group demonstrated the physics of musical instruments at the “Curiosity Forest”. 

A key knowledge exchange output of SUPA comes from its six hundred graduate students. Many of these students have industrial sponsors, either through one of the four Centres for Doctoral Training, or via another arrangement between their host university and industry. An excellent illustration of the benefits that can accrue from industrial involvement in a PhD is provided by a recently completed studentship from SUPA’s INSPIRE programme.

The studentship was a collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Toshiba Medical Visualisation Systems Europe and concerned the development of acquisition and analysis methods to image coronary arteries and cardiac function. The student, Chengjia Wang, supervised by Keith Goatman (Toshiba Medical) and Scott Semple (University of Edinburgh), successfully defended his thesis at the end of June. This topped off an extremely successful collaboration with two manuscripts in preparation with Chengjia as lead author to add to the multiple conference presentations, co-authored papers, and a patent on the registration of medical images.

In 2015 the universe was officially proven to be weird. After many decades of research, a series of experiments showed that distant, entangled objects can seemingly interact with each other through what Albert Einstein famously dismissed as “Spooky action at a distance”.  

A new experiment by an international team led by Heriot-Watt researcher Dr Alessandro Fedrizzi has now found that the universe is even weirder than that: entangled objects do not cause each other to behave the way they do.

Distinguishing cause from effect comes naturally to us. PhD student Martin Ringbauer from the University of Queensland explains, “Picture yourself in a room where someone is flicking a light switch. Intuition and experience lets you establish a simple causal model: the switch causes the lights to turn on and off. In this case, correlation implies causation.”

“If we could entangle two lights, you would see them turn on and off at random, regardless of how far apart they are, with no obvious switch and in perfect lockstep. Einstein’s preferred explanation of this mysterious effect was that there must be a hidden light switch which acts as a common cause for our entangled lights.”

SUPA launched a new Public Engagement Network on 8th September at Heriot Watt University. Researchers from across SUPA gathered to discuss how SUPA can support public engagement with physics in Scotland.

The event opened with a panel session on Considerations for Public Engagement chaired by Siân Bevan. Grant McAllister introduced SSERC and stressed its role in providing support and resources for teachers across Scotland. Aidan Robson and Helen Cammack discussed the challenges and opportunities inherent in taking part in public engagement activities as an academic. Both are enthusiastic supporters of SSERC. Stephen Breslin CEO of the Glasgow Science Centre spoke about Science as culture and the need for a science centre to create enjoyment and enthusiasm (which lead to repeat visits) Heather Earnshaw introduced the IoP’s improving gender balance project by graphically illustrating the audience’s gender bias. A lively discussion followed.

An ERA-NET competition on photonic sensing launched on 1st September, with a closing date for stage 1 proposals on 5th December 2016. ERA-NET is a European scheme to build cooperation and coordination of research activities carried out at national or regional level in the Member States. In practical terms this means that activity is funded in each country at the national level, in the UK this is through Innovate.

The photonic sensing competition is open to R&D project consortia consisting of a minimum of two separate legal partners from at least two different participating countries and/or regions as follows:

• Austria
• Flanders Region (Belgium)
• Germany
• Israel
• Poland
• Portugal
• Turkey
• Tuscany Region (Italy) and
• United Kingdom

The objective of this call is to strengthen the research and development of photonic techniques for the technology readiness levels (TRL) 3-6 (proof of concept to technology demonstration in relevant environment). The competition is aimed at the most relevant sensing technologies with the highest impact on the human life. The following five application areas are in scope:

The sensing of gases in the air we breathe has become increasingly important as society strives to improve quality of life. Current and future legislation, energy conservation, pollution reduction, safety applications and food production are all examples of market drivers for sensor systems. Emerging Smart City and IoT initiatives are likely to be major future contributors to accelerating the growth of the atmospheric gas sensing solution market.

As a physics graduate student in Scotland, you are a SUPA student. This gives you the benefit of being part of a grouping of eight physics departments/schools, and the additional opportunities provided by the SUPA Graduate School. Our goal is to help you to become the best physics graduate students in the world.

The SUPA Graduate School provides you with video conferenced lectures – in the newly upgraded rooms at each university – bringing the expertise of eight universities to your doorstep. Please read through the SUPA Graduate School Student Brochure which contains details of all the courses, what you are expected to complete, and all the information you need to know about being SUPA.

You will most likely be attending several induction events around this time – your local physics department/school, college, university, possibly CDT, and more. These events will provide you with a wealth of information that is designed to help you get the most out of your time as a post-graduate student.