Dr Linda Hadfield

Linda is the SUPA Graduate School Coordinator and Operations Manager.  She develops SUPA's strategy, plans SUPA events and manages the programme of SUPA courses.  She interviewed people with connections to SUPA for The Way We Work podcast.  

Prior to SUPA, Linda trained researchers to do outreach and public engagement at the University of Edinburgh.  She worked on science education research projects at the University of Colorado, Boulder, completed a PhD in atmospheric chemistry,(also in Boulder), and taught secondary school science as a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi. 

Sean Farrell

The SUPA Graduate School is not an ordinary Graduate School! With around 600 students based in eight universities, we are in a position to provide excellent training to a large number of the physicists who will become leaders in many fields and make a huge contribution to society. By adding to their knowledge base through your teaching, you are a vital part of these aspiring physicists’ careers.

On this page you will find lots of information helpful in the administration of your course on our virtual learning environment, MySUPA. We are always happy to receive feedback on the information on this page, if something is missing, or if you have a great tip you'd like to share with others, simply email admin@supa.ac.uk.

You will also find valuable information in the SUPA Course Catalogue, including our policy on course assessment. 

The SUPA Public Engagement Forum, held in 2021, brought together those with an interest in public engagement across SUPA and beyond.  Over 80 people from within SUPA, other research pools, Scottish Government, and Public Engagement Professionals took part, from undergraduates and up.

The event opened with a Welcome address from Prof Julie Fitzpatrick, Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland.

In the morning, we heard from key Scottish science centres about what platforms and audiences they can provide for researchers:

                                          Welcome to SUPA!   

SUPA is a collaboration across the physics community in Scotland. 

Hear about the benefits of SUPA from students and staff:

Find out more about what SUPA will mean for you:

Learn about courses available:

Welcome to SUPA!   

Here's a short summary of SUPA and the ground-breaking research that takes place.

  About SUPA 

One of SUPA's best features is that students can take courses at any of the SUPA Universities. 

 Introduction to SUPA courses

Please investigate the content of courses further via My.SUPA, our virtual learning envitonment.  You wil need to register for an account.

The courses offered through SUPA can be found in the course catalogue.

Beyond courses, SUPA provides a variety of opportunities. 

To overcome the grand challenges we face as a society, collaboration and co-ordination across the Scottish research and innovation landscape is paramount. Research Innovation Scotland (RIS) has been created by the research pools (including SUPA) in collaboration with Scotland's Innovation Centres and Interface.

Vidit the RIS website to see cross-pool and multi-disciplinary activities, case studies and funding opportunities. 

The Research Pools

Abstract: An electron that multiphoton ionizes is immediately subject to the electric field of the light that freed it, and this field will control the electron's short-time future. But since we can precisely control an infrared light beam, we can manipulate the electron, forcing it to re-collide with its parent ion. This collision enables us to synthesize 50-attosecond duration pulses - the shortest events that we, as humans, can systematically produce. Attosecond pulses allow us to measure electron dynamics within atoms, molecules or solids - the fastest measurements ever made.

We invited all members of SUPA – student, professor and everyone in between – to showcase a highlight from the last year for the SUPA community online. Highlight could be about a research project, a scientific or technical breakthrough, a report on a recently published paper, a collaborative initiative between SUPA or other partners, a creative interdisciplinary project, an industry placement, an outreach or public engagement activity, or a research visit.

We brought together these highlights in an online showcase format, to share, inspire and engage our community in the absence of being able to network and exchange information as part of our 2020 SUPA Virtual Gathering replacing the planned Annual Gathering.

A course page was created on My.SUPA, with 73 submissions across the forums for each of the seven SUPA research themes, plus an area for other activities beyond research containing 13 contributions.

The 76th SUSSP on Photonic Imaging, Sensing & Analysis will be held at the University of St Andrews, in 2021 (postponed from 2020 due to the pandemic). 

The role of photonic technologies in imaging and sensing is well recognized, but next generation systems are being defined by the unique synergy between computational and photonic techniques that deliver functionalities that are “greater than the sum of their parts”.  Already this can be seen in the coupling of lidar with autonomous vehicles, structured light with facial recognition and compressive sensing techniques for multi-dimensional imaging.  Such techniques are often motivated by an industrial agenda, reflecting the focused investment that only industry can bring to bear on such problems.  SUSSP 76 will bring together leading academic and industrial researchers to deliver agenda-setting lectures and workshops to PhD and EngD doctoral students active in these areas.

Main themes: 

–           Photonic sensing and Metrology

–           Computationally assisted imaging and sensing

–           Device technologies for photonic imaging and sensing