Professor Philip Burrows has been working with UK company TMD Technologies to design key elements of a next-generation electron-positron collider at CERN. Professor Burrows leads the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) Collaboration which is preparing the design of the collider that could serve as a ‘factory’ for mass-producing Higgs bosons. Such a Higgs factory has been identified by the global particle physics community as its top priority for a next-generation subatomic particle collider facility.

Scientists around the world are racing to understand more about the COVID-19-causing virus – and physicists at Oxford are no exception. 'Without physics and physicists there could be no modern technological society, from microelectronics and telecommunications, to LCD displays and PET scanners in hospitals; it is therefore not surprising that physics has much to offer in the battle against CoV2,' explains Head of Department, Professor Ian Shipsey.

Researchers at Oxford have devised a broadband high efficiency frequency up-converter based on the nonlinear wave mixing mechanism in a travelling wave parametric device. The up-converter exhibits quantum-limit noise performance, high conversion efficiency and cleanly defined spectral components. Key application areas include quantum-computing, astronomical experimentation and cryogenic readout applications.

Oxford Physics alumna Dr. Cecilia Muldoon and her team from VeriVin Ltd have been awarded a prestigious Institute of Physics Business Start-Up Award for VeriVin’s through-barrier analyser, that allows the authentication, characterisation and monitoring of complex liquids without opening their container.

The IOP Business Start-Up Award specifically recognises and celebrates young companies with a great business idea founded on a physics invention, with the potential for business growth and significant societal impact.

The European Commission has announced the funding of a new Innovative Training Network, led by Oxford University, which will train PhD students in Machine Learning Skills to address Climate Change.

iMIRACLI (innovative MachIne leaRning to constrain Aerosol-cloud CLimate Impacts) brings together leading climate and machine learning scientists across Europe with non-academic partners, such as Amazon and the MetOffice, to educate a new generation of climate data scientists.