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Welcome from the CEO |
It was great to have a return to a degree of normality in our working lives during 2022. We were able to network in person for the first time since 2019 and celebrate the strength of Scottish physics research at the well attended 2022 SUPA Annual Gathering in May and the SUPA Graduate School Welcome in October, both hosted by the University of Edinburgh at the John McIntyre Centre. (Please note the date of the 2023 SUPA Annual Gathering to be held in Glasgow on 16th May). The Satire Exchange scheme for PGRs and ECRs funded by SFC has been a great success in 2022; we were able to support 26 outgoing and incoming exchanges with universities and research organisations right across Europe creating links that we hope will continue to develop and strengthen relationships and collaborations – very well done to all selected to take part in this scheme! SUPA is planning to support further international exchanges in 2023. It remains for me to wish our whole SUPA community across Scotland the best Christmas possible and a brighter and productive 2023.
Alan |
News from SUPA |
SUPA Welcome Event for new students
The Welcome Event for new research students returned to in-person this year, with over 80 new students coming to the John McIntyre Conference Centre in Edinburgh. Participants heard an example of inspiring and exciting SUPA research from Dr Margherita Mazzera (Heriot-Watt), explored top tips and advice from current and former students, discovered the plethora of public engagement and outreach opportunities available from Dr XinRan Liu (Edinburgh) and heard from Prof Neil Turok (recently appointed to the Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics at Edinburgh) on his career journey from his childhood in South Africa to the present day, including the creation of AIMS - the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences. The event also included a workshop from Dr Jo Young (Electv) on the art of networking, which was put to good use in the breaks and there was lots of conversation over cake at the end of the day. |
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Careers Online at Lunchtime
The monthly talk series introducing you to a variety of people who started their career with a PhD in physics, and went on to work outside academia is taking a break over the festive period. The next session will be February 1st, with guest Dr Claire Thring, Novosound.
The videos from the previous sessions are available on MySUPA: Oct 26 - Lorenzo Zanisi, Data Scientist, UK Atomic Energy Agency Nov 16 - Orla Kelly, Knowledge Exchange & Innovation Collaboration Manager, Universities Scotland/UWS
To watch the videos back or to receive the links, please use MySUPA to enrol on the course. This course is also open to everyone, not just those in SUPA and other pools, so please share with those you think may find it useful. Anyone who has an issue with registering should email admin@supa.ac.uk for help. |
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If you join our courses remotely, you may have noticed new branding, as our provider VScene, has undergone a rebrand to become ClassView. The classes are running as usual, you don’t need to do anything, you should just notice a different colour scheme! |
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*New* Power Hour of Writing
Building on the success and demand for our support with writing skills, we are now pleased to be offering the Power Hour of Writing. Available to PGR students AND post-docs!
This is an online writing community that meets weekly. You block out the time to participate and work on whatever it is you’re needing to work on, it could be writing or research related, marking, or things that keep dropping off the to-do list.
More information is available on MySUPA: Power Hour of Writing |
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Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme grand finale
Throughout 2022 SUPA has funded 26 research visits, either to or from Europe for our PhD and early career researcher community. We are still reviewing the reports and collating the lengthy list of achievements and outputs from the scheme, which we’ll report in the next newsletter.
The SUPA researchers were part of Team Saltire, a national cohort of all those funded for these visits by the SFC and Scottish Government. In November the cohort met in Edinburgh for a day of reflection, celebration and masterclasses. Over 100 people attended in person, with a further 150 tuning in online over the day.
In the evening, a reception was held at the National Museum of Scotland, where prizes were awarded for the “flash presentations” that participants submitted. Congratulations to SUPA-funded Elena Ascensio, for being shortlisted for her video on the recipe for the universe and what ingredients could be changed and still result in what we have. Elena came from the University of Bonn and worked with Dr Indranil Banik and Dr Hongsheng Zhao at St Andrews for one month. |
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Multidisciplinary Matchmaker launches
Once again the pools and innovation centres across Scotland have come together on a Multidisciplinary Matchmaker scheme. If you have a good idea but need a collaborator from another discipline to make it great, the scheme aims to connect you.
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News from our Partner Universities |
| An international collaboration led by MIT and including Strathclyde, has developed a programmable spatial light modulator for high-speed beam steering, such as super-fast lidar in self-driving cars. |
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| Research between Heriot-Watt and University of Geneva has developed a way for quantum entanglement to survive under even extreme conditions of noise and loss. |
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| An international collaboration between Edinburgh, Delft and Gothenburg has developed a contactless method to measure the mechanical properties of liquid-liquid interfaces, using fluorescence microscopy. |
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| A new international research hub at St Andrews will coordinate global expertise to prepare humanity for what we should do and how we should respond when we discover we are not alone in the cosmos. |
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| SUPA is delighted to welcome back David McGloin to Scottish physics. Prof McGloin has joined Aberdeen as the new Head of School of Natural & Computing Sciences. Having previously worked at St Andrews and Dundee, from 2018 he was Director of Research Programs for Engineering & IT at the University of Technology Sydney. |
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| A collaboration led by Edinburgh involving Linköping and Bayreuth Universities has employed extreme pressure and temperature conditions to better understand hydrogen content variability in lanthanum hydrides, making us one step closer to a room temperature superconductor. |
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| A team at St Andrews have developed anti-reflecting coatings for epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials that are easily fabricated and can improve the performance of applications based on ENZ-multilayer thin film stacks. |
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| Three PhD projects based at UWS were selected to be part of ISSET (International Space Station Education Trust). In November the students watched on as their research, on plant growth in microgravity using smart sensing, worms in space, and nanoparticle activity in microgravity, travelled to the ISS. |
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| A consortium of UK astronomers, led by Edinburgh’s Institute for Astronomy, have been awarded £8m from the UK Space Agency to develop and launch an international space mission to study dark energy and dark matter in the universe. |
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| A new simple laser system powered by a cheap, shop-bought laser could help astronomers find earth-like planets, according to research at Heriot-Watt. |
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| The investment of ÂŁ7.5m from Innovate UK and BBSRC brings the total funding for Phase 2 of the NBIC to ÂŁ23.4m. The NBIC is led by Edinburgh, Liverpool, Nottingham and Southampton, and works on preventing, detecting, managing and engineering biofilms to tackle global challenges. |
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| More than £20 million has been awarded to the UK’s theoretical physics community to expand and test theories of how the universe works. 25 instititutions will benefit from the 3-year funding, including Edinburgh and Glasgow. |
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| Lynkeos Technology Ltd, a Glasgow spinout, is one of 10 organisations who have received funding from the Defence and Security Accelerator and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The grant will support the detection, identification and monitoring of complex and high value assets. |
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| A new international collaboration between Edinburgh, Sapienza, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and the Belgium-based EURA NOVA company, aims to provide new and simple ways to infer important physical quantities of clusters of galaxies from multiwavelength images. |
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Congratulations to… |
Prof Mehul Malik, Heriot-Watt |
| for being awarded ÂŁ2.5M from the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies programme to develop new quantum network technologies. |
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Dr Nicolina Chrysaphi, Glasgow |
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Dr Carlo Bruno, Edinburgh |
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Prof Martin Dawson, Prof Harald Haas, and their teams, Strathclyde |
| for being awarded the 2022 Best Paper Award from the IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, for their collaboration driving the capability of LiFi technology beyond existing limits. |
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Congratulations to Dr Anne Pawsey, a SUPA PhD graduate and former SUPA Graduate School Coordinator, who has just been appointed as Secretary General of the European Physical Society based in Mulhouse, France. |
Institute of Physics Awards
Congratulations to all those who have won IOP Awards this year: Dr Ross Galloway, Edinburgh, received the Marie Curie-Sklodowska Medal and Prize for work in developing, using and communicating research-based approaches to active student learning in physics and other disciplines. Kayleigh Williamson, Grange Academy in Kilmarnock, received a Teachers of Physics Award, for the lengths she goes to in support of her students, both in the classroom and beyond school, seeking out placement information for pupils. Dr Kenneth Hargreaves, Lockerbie Academy, received an IOP Technician Award, for the support he provides in class but also extracurricular activities such as the school’s weather station and trips to Space School in Houston.
Congratulations also to Prof Thomas Krauss, a prominent contributor to SUPA during his time at St Andrews including a period as Head of Physics & Astronomy and member of the SUPA Executive Committee, now at the University of York, for being awarded the Thomas Young Medal and Prize.
Nominations are now open for the 2023 awards, nominate on the IOP website by 30 January 2023. |
Funding |
| For those at the end of their PhD or no more than three years from it. This Fellowship will fund two years in the USA for exceptional graduates in the physical sciences, mathematics and their interfaces with the Life Sciences.
Deadline 6 February 2023 |
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| All of UKRI’s funding in one place, search by Council and funding type. Examples: Future Leader Fellowships, Ernest Rutherford Fellowships, travel grants, and technology readiness. |
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| The IOP has a number of schemes to support their members including: |
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| Up to ÂŁ250 to help you attend an event you may not otherwise be able to (e.g. extended childcare hours, nursing care) |
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| For PGR students to attend an overseas conference, value depends on location. |
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| Up to ÂŁ300 to attend international meetings and facilities, quarterly deadlines, next deadline 1 March. |
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| Up to ÂŁ300 to attend international and major national meetings, quarterly deadlines, next deadline 1 March. |
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| The SFC funds a number of programmes administered by Interface, to connect business and Scotland’s universities in innovative collaborations. Applications must be made by the SME partner, if you don’t have an SME partner Interface can help.
Rolling scheme, no deadlines. Standard Innovation Vouchers, <ÂŁ5,000 for first-time partnerships Student Placement Innovation Voucher, <ÂŁ5,000 Advanced Innovation Vouchers, <ÂŁ20,000 of match funding
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Public Engagement & Outreach |
| Applications are now open for next year’s Glasgow Science Festival, running from 1-11 June 2023. Full details and application form online.
Deadline: Mon 16 January 2023 |
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| Funding quick-response high-profile PE programmes, relating to unexpected or highly significant discoveries across STFC’s science and technology remit.
Open all year round. |
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| UKRI have launched their new strategy for public engagement and outreach. It includes three goals, which will be met through supporting culture change, investing in infrastructure and partnerships, and supporting innovative pilot projects. |
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And finally…nominate outstanding women physicists for EPS prize |
The European Physical Society launched the Emmy Noether Distinction to recognise noteworthy women physicists having a strong connection to Europe through their nationality or work. Emmy Noether, with her fundamental and revolutionary work in the areas of abstract algebra and on the conservation laws in theoretical physics, is an exceptional historical figure for all generations - past, present and future - of physicists. The laureates of the Emmy Noether Distinction are chosen for their capacity to inspire the next generation of scientists, and especially encourage women to pursue a career in physics.
The nomination deadline is 15 January 2023. Details of how to nominate can be found on the EPS website. |
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