Everything around us, everything each of us has ever experienced, and virtually everything underpinning our technological society and economy is governed by quantum mechanics. Yet this most fundamental physical theory of nature often feels as if it is a set of somewhat eerie and counterintuitive ideas of no direct relevance to our lives. Why is this?

On September 14 2015, the two LIGO gravitational wave detectors in Hanford, Washington and Livingston, Louisiana registered a nearly simultaneous signal with time-frequency properties consistent with gravitational-wave emission by the merger of two massive compact objects. Further analysis of the signals by the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration revealed that the gravitational waves detected by LIGO came from the merger of a binary black hole system. This observation, followed by another one in December 2015, marked the beginning of gravitational wave astronomy.

The following lectures will be given at 3.30pm on Fridays in the Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Clarendon Laboratory, Parks Road (unless otherwise stated). Tea will be served in the Physics Common Room at 4.30 pm.

The aim of the colloquia series is to share with members of the department the latest information on physics research and developments. Undergraduates, graduates, postdocs, faculty members and support staff are all encouraged to attend these lectures.

The Department of Physics at the University of Oxford has been named a champion of gender equality as part of the Institute of Physics' Project Juno initiative.

Project Juno aims to address the long-standing issue of women being under-represented in physics at UK and Irish universities by recognising and rewarding actions to address the issue and embed better working practices for all.

First year Oxford graduate student Jesse Liu has just released a paper showing how the increase in LHC energy from 8 to 13 TeV has squeezed the permissible models of the theory of supersymmetry.

Supersymmetric theories predicts particles that could help explain the mysterious dark matter in our universe, and which can be produced at the LHC, so they are well worth pursuing.