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School of Physics and Astronomy – Yearbook 2020

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School of Physics and Astronomy – Yearbook 2020 Credit: SohebCredit: Mandhai, Physics PhD Student * SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY – YEARBOOK 2020 Introduction Table of Contents research, and some have wandered the socially-distanced corridors with a heavy heart, missing the noise, chaos, and Introduction ....................................................... 2 energy of previous years. Many living within the city School Events & Activities ................................... 4 boundaries have been under some sort of restrictions ever since. Each of us has had to adapt, to try to find our own paths Science News .................................................... 20 through the COVID-19 pandemic, and to hold onto the certainty that better times are in front of us. From the Archive .............................................. 34 But despite the Earth-shattering events of the past year, Space Park Leicester News ................................ 37 compiling this 2020 yearbook has been remarkable, eye- Physicists Away from the Department (Socially opening, and inspiring. In the pages that follow, we hope that Distanced Edition*) .......................................... 44 you’ll be proud of the flexibility and resilience shown in the Physics and Astronomy community – the pages are Celebrating Success .......................................... 48 overflowing with School events; stories of successes in our student, research, and academic communities; highlights Meeting Members of the School ....................... 51 from our public engagement across the UK; momentous changes in our teaching through the Ignite programme; and Physics Special Topics: Editors Pick ................... 68 new leaps forward for our world-leading research. Our Comings and Goings ......................................... 70 Directors of Teaching have done a phenomenal job, working non-stop to support teaching staff who have worked tirelessly Twelve months ago, as the Leicester Physics News Team were to prepare blended courses suitable for the virtual world. pulling together stories for our first-ever Yearbook 2019, we They have been supported by the superhuman efforts of our could never have imagined the strange world we find administrative team and lab teams. Our undergraduate and ourselves in at the end of 2020. After a mere ten weeks of postgraduate admissions teams have achieved outstanding normality, life began to change immeasurably for the entire results, with an excellent number of new students joining our Physics and Astronomy family. Some of us have not seen the School this academic year. All have had to adapt to the ever- department in more than nine months, some have been changing requirements of university life with COVID-19. taking part in face-to-face teaching and lab-based These stories showcase the energy and enthusiasm of our 2 SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY – YEARBOOK 2020 School during 2020, and show what we can achieve even engagement programme, has been trying to draw together under the most challenging of circumstances. the various opportunities available across the School. The centrepiece is our redesigned blog 2020 marked six decades of space research here at Leicester, (https://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/physicsastronomy/), used to and the exploration of our Earth, our Solar System, and our coordinate virtual events (such as our recent all-school quiz place in the Universe remains at the core of Leicester’s and National Space Centre Q&A sessions); showcase Leicester research. Our research grant income for 2019/20 was nothing teaching and research achievements (videos, podcasts, blogs); short of outstanding, supporting world-leading science across advertise opportunities (such as social events, student our School. Space Park Leicester continues to develop in societies, seminars, and extra-curricular activities); and leaps and bounds on Pioneer Park, promising exciting new introduce key members of our School to the wider community possibilities for research; novel approaches to education and (our “Conversations with…” profiles). Our undergraduates skills training; and wonderful opportunities for engagement and graduates have dragged the rest of us into the 21st and impact in the coming decade. Occupation of these new century, via the management of Discord servers for informal buildings is expected to commence in the middle of next year chats, study groups, film nights, social gaming, and much – you can read the ‘inside story’ of the development of Space more. Highlights from the blog form the backbone of this Park later in this Yearbook. Yearbook, but there’s plenty more to discover in these pages, showcasing the breadth of what we’ve managed to Our research structure has been consolidated throughout accomplish in this strange year. 2020, with the formation of the new Astrophysics group (merging our X-ray astronomy and theoretical astrophysics To those who have been leading us through these tumultuous groups) and Planetary Science group (combining elements of times – from the management team, to the administrative Radio and Space Plasma Physics and the Space Research team, to the teaching directors, to the admissions team, and Centre), to sit alongside the Earth Observation Science group to all those who had to react to the sudden changes imposed and the cross-cutting Space Research Centre. These on us – the School would like to say an enormous and heartfelt structural changes, alongside the curriculum transformation thank you. 2021 marks the centenary for the University of of our undergraduate course that was completed last year, Leicester, and we can’t help but wonder what those first means that the School is well prepared for its seventh decade. students and researchers of 1921 would make of our School You can learn more about the exciting research from 2020 in today. We hope they’d be proud that we’d managed to the pages of this Yearbook. weather the storms of 2020, setting the foundations for a prosperous centenary year. Finally, the chief editor would like Through all the challenges of 2020, the Physics and Astronomy to extend thanks to the Leicester Physics News Team, Physics community has been more important than ever before, trying Community Team, and all the contributors to the School blog, to keep us talking to one another despite our isolation. We’ve without whom this Yearbook 2020 would never have become welcomed new students to the University under the strangest reality. of conditions, and sadly said goodbye to our leavers in a way none of us could have foreseen. The newly formed Physics Community Team, which emerged out of a virtual summer 3 SCHOOL OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY – YEARBOOK 2020 School Events & Activities British Planetary Science Conference 2020 across the wider U.K. scientific community and specifically at the University of Leicester. (January 2020) Academic staff and students presented a range of work at the Advancing UK and Italian research in Gamma- 2nd British Planetary Science Conference – Written by Donald Ray astrophysics (February 2020) Bowden Leicester physicists invited to the home of the UK ambassador The 2nd British Planetary Science Conference was held from to Italy to discuss the future of Gamma-Ray astrophysics. the 13th-15th of January at the University of Oxford, following from 2017’s inaugural conference in Glasgow. Attendees from The School of Physics and Astronomy has a long and proud the University of Leicester presented their work across 14 tradition of astrophysics research in collaboration with Italian talks and posters, covering a wide range of topics across the scientists stretching back over many decades. Three of our solar system, from crater cataloguing on Mercury to infrared academics, Professors Paul O’Brien, Jon Lapington and Julian observations of the Neptunian atmosphere, and much in Osborne, were invited to represent the UK at a workshop on between. February 13th-14th to discuss the future opportunities in gamma-ray astrophysics, along with colleagues from several Italian institutes. The workshop was hosted by the UK Ambassador to the Italian Republic, Jill Morris CMG, at the historic Villa Wolkonsky, her residence in central Rome. The Ambassador opened the workshop together with Professor Nichi D’Amico, President of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). Figure 1 The conference reception at Oxford University Natural History Museum. Photo credit: Dr. Natasha Stephen (Twitter @NatStephen) Figure 2 The participants of the UK-Italian astrophysics workshop Alongside presenting their research, the conference also organised by UK Science and Innovation and INAF. provided chances for the attendees to socialise and network, As the Ambassador’s guests, Paul, Jon and Julian were able to with a food and drinks reception held amongst the exhibits of impress their colleagues with a location regarded as the Oxford University Natural History Museum. The magnificent even in Rome. Trying not to be distracted by the conference closed with a panel discussion featuring enormous Roman aqueduct in the garden (courtesy of the representatives from different funding bodies and scientific Emperor Nero), the workshop participants discussed future community organisations, allowing the participants to voice ground- and space-based facilities, scientific opportunities their thoughts regarding the direction of British planetary and how Leicester is ideally placed to take advantage of our science. joint national goals in research. The course of the conference highlighted the breadth and Professor Paul O’Brien, said “We are
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