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Location Manchester, United Kingdom Affiliations Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences,
University of Manchester Website www.physics.manchester.ac.uk | ||
The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester is one of the largest and most active Physics departments in the UK, taking around 250 new undergraduates and 50 postgraduates each year, and employing more than 80 members of academic staff and over 100 research fellows and associates. The school is based on two sites: the Schuster Laboratory on Brunswick Street and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Cheshire, international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
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According to the Academic Ranking of World Universities, the school is the 13th best Physics department in the world and 2nd best in Europe. It is ranked equal 7th place in the UK by GPA according to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014. The University has a long history of physics dating back to 1874, which includes 12 Nobel laureates, most recently Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for their discovery of graphene.
Research groups
The School of Physics and Astronomy comprises eight research groups:
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Biological Physics
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Nonlinear Dynamics and Liquid Crystal Physics
- Photon Physics
- Particle Physics
- Nuclear Physics
- Theoretical Physics
Research in the department of Physics has been funded by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the Royal Society.
Senior academic staff: Professors
As of 2015 the School employs 53 Professors, including Emeritus Professors.
- Richard Battye, Professor of Cosmology
- Jonathan Billowes, Professor of Nuclear Physics
- Michael Birse, Professor of Theoretical Physics
- Raymond Bishop, Research Professor of Theoretical Physics
- Sarah Bridle, Professor of Astrophysics
- Michael Brown, Professor of Astrophysics
- Ian Browne, Professor of Radio Astronomy
- Phillipa Browning, Professor of Astrophysics
- Brian Cox, OBE, Professor of Particle Physics, working on the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider
- Rod Davies, FRS CBE, Professor of Radio Astronomy
- Richard Davis, Professor of Astrophysics
- Philip Dawson, Professor of Photon Physics
- Philip Diamond, Professor of Photon Physics and Director General of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA)
- Alexander Donnachie, Research Professor
- Wendy Flavell, Professor of Surface Physics
- Jeffrey Forshaw, Professor of Particle Physics and co-author of The Quantum Universe
- Sean Freeman, Professor of Physics
- Gary Fuller, Professor of Physics
- Sir Andre Geim FRS, Regius Professor & Royal Society Research Professor
- Andrei Golov, Professor of Condensed Matter Physics
- Alexander Grigorenko, Professor of Physics
- Irina Grigorieva, Professor of Physics
- Roger Jones, Professor of Particle Accelerator Physics
- Anne Juel, Professor of Applied Mathematics in the School of Mathematics
- George King, Emeritus Professor
- Michael Kramer, Professor of Astrophysics
- George Lafferty, Professor of Experimental Particle Physics working on the BaBar experiment.
- Fred Loebinger, Emeritus Professor
- Jian Lu, Professor of Biophysics
- Andrew Lyne, FRS, Emeritus Professor & co-discoverer of the binary pulsar
- Shude Mao, Professor of Astrophysics
- Robin Marshall, FRS, Professor of Physics & Biology
- Alan Mackane, Professor of Physics
- Michael Moore, FRS, Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics
- Thomas Mullin, Emeritus Professor of Physics
- Andrew Murray, Professor of Atomic Physics
- Sir Konstantin Novoselov, FRS, Langworthy Professor of Physics
- Tim O'Brien, Professor of Astrophysics
- Christopher Parkes, Professor of Particle Physics working on the LHCb experiment at CERN
- Alan Pedlar, Professor of Astrophysics
- Lucio Piccirillo, Professor of Radio astronomy Technology
- Apostolos Pilaftsis, Professor of Particle Physics
- Michael Seymour, Professor of Particle Physics
- Stefan Söldner-Rembold, Professor of Particle Physics
- Ralph Spender, Emeritus Professor
- Benjamin Stappers, Professor of Astrophysics
- Niels Walet, Professor of Theoretical Physics
- Stephen Watts, Professor of Particle Physics and Head of School
- Peter Wilkinson, Professor of Astrophysics
- Terry Wyatt, FRS, Professor of Particle Physics, working on the DØ experiment at the Tevatron in Fermilab, Chicago
- Henggui Zhang, Professor of Biological Physics
- Albert Zijlstra, Professor of Astrophysics and Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
History of the School
The school has origins dating back to 1874 when Balfour Stewart was appointed the first Langworthy Professor of Physics at Owens College, Manchester. Stewart was the first to identify an electrified atmospheric layer (now known as the ionosphere) which could distort the Earth's magnetic field. The theory of the ionosphere was postulated by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1839, Stewart published the firist experimental confirmation of the theory in 1878. Since then, the school has hosted many award winning scientists including:
In 2004, the two separate departments of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) were merged to form the current School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester. See physicists associated with the University of Manchester for a complete list of physicists in Manchester and their achievements.