The Department Of Physics And Astronomy.
Newsletter Autumn 2016.
Thanks for coming along to one of our open days. We hope it helps you with making your decision. Over the next few pages you can find out what’s new in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and see what some of our staff and students have been up to. There’s also information, below, about our UCAS days. CONSISTENTLY HIGH FOR STUDENT SATISFACTION Over the last four years, 19 out of every 20 physics students at Sheffield have been satisfied with the quality of their course
We hope to see you again soon. Best wishes, Professor Paul Crowther Head of Department
NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY
DEPARTMENTAL OPEN DAYS If you apply for a place in this department, and you’re expected to meet our entry requirements, you’re invited to a Departmental Open Day and interview. On these visits, you get to spend more time with staff and students, who will tell you more about their courses and the research they do. There are also opportunities to explore the University campus and to visit our student accommodation. Physics open days are held between November and March – we get in touch with a choice of dates as quickly as we can once we receive your application. They’re a great opportunity for you to ask any questions you might have. There is also another University Open Day on Saturday 22 October. For more details and to book a visit, go to: WWW.SHEFFIELD.AC.UK/OPENDAYS
Physics and Astronomy Newsletter
Student prize ISABELLE STEPS UP TO TAKE NATIONAL AWARD One of our undergraduate students has won a national award for her work to help science students get work experience. Isabelle Gessey was presented with the Step up to Leadership On Campus award at the national Student Employee of the Year Awards. Isabelle, who is on our MPhys Physics and Astrophysics course, spent time in her second year working as Lead Student Associate in Learning and Teaching (SALT) for the University’s Faculty of Science. She led a project to help science students make the most of the work experience opportunities available through the University, and was awarded the University of Sheffield Step up to Leadership On Campus award, before going on to take the regional and national prizes. Isabelle is one of five physics students about to start a year-long work placement of her own. She’ll spend the next year getting work experience at the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Daresbury Lab in Warrington. PICTURED: Isabelle is with her award at the Student Jobshop in our Students’ Union 3
Physics and Astronomy Newsletter
Laboratories HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS INVESTED IN LATEST EQUIPMENT FOR UNDERGRADUATES We want to make sure our students get the chance to use the most up-to-date scientific equipment, so that when they graduate, they’ll know their way around the technology that cutting-edge employers use. This technology moves fast, so we’ve invested £800k in state-of-the-art equipment and laboratories. The labs that our second and third year students will be using this year will include: • two high speed thermal cameras • an atomic force microscope • a spectroscopic ellipsometer for measuring the optical properties of electronic materials • a high sensitivity optical microscope • two high energy particle detectors • a fully equipped quantum information laboratory • a cryostat capable of 4K temperatures • Raman and UV/Vis spectrometers We’re using this equipment to run industrial projects and teach quantum optics, physical computing, and the science and technology of detectors. We also teach physical computing in the electronics lab in The Diamond, the University of Sheffield’s new multi-million pound teaching and study space. PICTURED: Students working in the Quantum Information Laboratory and, top-right, The Diamond
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Physics and Astronomy Newsletter
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Physics and Astronomy Newsletter
Solar power HELPING THE NATIONAL GRID WITH SOLAR POWER STUDIES The University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy is home to the largest solar power database in the UK. Every half an hour we use this database to calculate the total solar power being generated on the nation’s electricity network. We’ve recently teamed up with National Grid, who take this number and add it to the power generated by gas, nuclear, wind and coal to reveal the true amount of electricity used by homes, factories, shops, and everything else on the network. We have two members of staff working full-time on this project, and each year we employ two or three undegraduate students to help out with data analysis and web management. The problem is that there are more than 750,000 different solar power installations in the UK and very few are monitored directly by National Grid. But in future, it will be possible to use the calculations made through our database to accurately predict how much solar power will be generated in the UK. This will make it possible for National Grid to plan for and accommodate new technologies such as electric vehicles, smart appliances and large scale battery storage. For live data on UK photovoltaic power visit WWW.SOLAR.SHEFFIELD.AC.UK/PVLIVE To donate your photovoltaic data to the project visit WWW.MICROGEN-DATABASE.ORG.UK
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Physics and Astronomy Newsletter
Monster stars SHEFFIELD ASTRONOMER LEADS DISCOVERY OF LARGEST EVER MASSIVE STAR SAMPLE A team of reasearchers led by a University of Sheffield astronomer has identified nine monster stars that have a mass that is more than 100 times greater than the Sun. The discovery of the star cluster named R136 was made using the NSAS/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and it’s the largest sample of monster stars identified to date. R136 is only a few light-years across and is located in the Tarantula Nebula within the Large Magellanic Cloud, about 170,000 light-years away. The young cluster hosts many extremely massive, hot and luminous stars whose energy is mostly radiated in the ultraviolet. As well as their enormous mass, the nine newly identified stars are also exceptionally bright, and together they outshine the Sun by a factor of 30 million. The study, which also revealed dozens of stars with a mass that is 50 times greater than the Sun’s, was led by our Head of Department, Professor Paul Crowther. He said: “Once again, our work demonstrates that, despite being in orbit for over 25 years, there are some areas of science for which Hubble is still uniquely capable. “The ability to distinguish ultraviolet light from such an exceptionally crowded region into its component parts, resolving the signatures of individual stars, was only made possible with the instruments aboard Hubble.” 7
Contact us The Department of Physics and Astronomy Hicks Building Hounsfield Road Sheffield S3 7RH United Kingdom T: 0114 222 4362 E: physics.ucas@sheffield.ac.uk W: www.sheffield.ac.uk/physics @UoSPHY
Monster stars image credit (p7): Credit: NASA, ESA, Paul Crowther University of Sheffield