Giulia Zanderighi, Professor of Physics at the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, has obtained a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation, Germany. These are awarded to internationally renowned academics from abroad in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments in research to date and their exceptional promise for the future.

The European Research Council has awarded Prof James Binney a five-year Advanced Grant of nearly 2m Eu to fund work on extracting science from large surveys of our Galaxy.

Dr Starinets has been awarded an ERC Starting grant for research on non-equilibrium gauge-string duality.

Why String Theory? website aims to provide the general public with an introduction to the mysteries of string theory.

You’ll learn where string theory came from, why people research it and what they hope to find out. No prior knowledge of higher physics or mathematics is assumed, but nevertheless there is sufficient depth of material for you to be able to gain a true insight into current developments.

The Department of Physics has been granted an Athena Swan Bronze Award.

For further details, please see the full Story at www2.physics.ox.ac.uk/athena-swan.

The beliefs underpinning the Athena Swan Charter are:

Summer 2012

Our latest Department newsletter is now available to download in PDF format here. Have a look at the wide range of work that we do in front-line research, teaching, public outreach and school education. We would welcome contributions to future newsletters from undergraduate or postgraduate alumni and previous members of the physics department.

Congratulations to Yulin Chen (Condensed Matter) who has been awarded the prestigious Outstanding Young Researcher Award of the International Organization of Chinese Physicists and Astronomers, with the following citation:

STFC have announce the 2012 round of Ernest Rutherford Fellowships. These are prestigious 5 year fellowships which may be held in any of the science areas supported by STFC. See oxford physics opportunities for further details about applying to hold one of these fellowships here.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

Katherine Blundell has been awarded the Bragg Medal "For promoting engagement in and learning of physics both by carrying research in astronomy into schools in developing countries and by helping graduate students and postdocs in the UK to talk to schoolchildren about their science."