Yesterday I did something I’ve only done a handful of times before – I watched my PhD student undergo his viva voce examination. For him it’s the culmination of nearly three years of work, and is part of the slightly curious system by which PhDs are awarded. He spent his three years working with me and […]
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The last of this academic year’s Institute of Physics South Central Branch talks hosted at the University of Surrey is on Wednesday 14th May. Each year I try to have one talk which is about the history or philosophy of science, and this talk is the one I’ve organised for this year. It’s by Dr […]
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The latest of the series of Institute of Physics (IoP) branch talks that I organise takes place this Wednesday, 2nd April. The speaker is Dr Valeska Ting, of the University of Bath, and she will be talking about materials which are specially engineered to be able to story very high densities of hydrogen gas thanks […]
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The most regular writer of this blog, Dr Richard Sear, is clearly too modest to announce here that he has started his own independent blog, entitled Chance and Necessity. I, on the other hand, have no such qualms in recommending that readers of our Departmental Blog add Richard’s separate blog to their reading list. I have certainly […]
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Wednesday and Thursday of this week I was at a biological physics meeting at St Catherine’s college, Oxford. The highlight for me was a talk by the very distinguished biologist Dennis Bray. It was a lovely talk. He started by mentioning the Blue Brain project – a project to reverse engineer the human brain. By reverse […]
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I’m from Barcelona (and I really mean it, unlike the Swedish band). Most of you might know the city for its prodigious football team, its gorgeous architectural masterpieces or its unique gastronomical scene. But Barcelona is also a key player in the international scientific scene. Among others, the city is a hub for biosciences, hosts […]
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