The University of Oxford has marked the opening of the Beecroft Building, a new 8,950sqm building for experimental and theoretical physics.

World wide web pioneer Sir Tim Berners-Lee and donor Adrian Beecroft joined the Chancellor, Lord Patten of Barnes, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, to officially open the new state-of-the-art facility located in Oxford University’s science area in Parks Road.

Many congratulations to Guy Wilkinson who has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

You can see the citation at https://royalsociety.org/people/guy-wilkinson-13852/

An Oxford team has succeeded in stabilising the arrival time of a ‘relativistic’ beam of electrons, travelling at almost the speed of light, to 50 femtoseconds. This overcomes one of the major challenges facing the proposed Compact Linear Collider (CLIC).

The mystery of how comets are able to emit X-rays has been solved by a team led by the University of Oxford.

The research published in Nature Physics considers the longstanding scientific question of how comets are able to radiate X-rays. A conundrum that is particularly puzzling, given that such emission is normally associated with very hot objects like the Sun, and comets are among the coldest objects in the Solar System.

Professor Stephen Hawking, 1942-2018

On 13 March 2018, physicists awoke to news that Prof Stephen Hawking, surely Oxford’s best known physics undergraduate (Univ. 1959), had died peacefully in his sleep. He leaves behind a monumental legacy.

The annual MPLS Impact Awards aim to foster and raise awareness of impact by rewarding it at a local level, and prepare the ground for the impact case studies that will be needed for REF 2021, and future similar exercises. This year’s awards were presented at the MPLS Winter Reception on the 6th February at Mansfield College, with the winners receiving a pay award of £1,000 (minus taxes).

Oxford Physicists won awards in three out of the four categories!

Professor Frederick K. Lamb
University of Illinois
Friday 1 December 2017 at 3.30pm
Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, followed by reception

Title: Scientific and Policy Aspects of the Iran Nuclear Deal