The International Nuclear Physics Conference is coming to Glasgow at the end of July, SUPA is sponsoring the public lecture given by University of Surrey's Professor Jim Al-Khalili, and everyone is invited!

Nuclear Physics and the Making of the Modern Periodic Table

Tuesday 30 July 2019

SEC, Glasgow

Nothing epitomises the field of chemistry more than the periodic table of elements, a classification and ordering of all the different types of atoms in existence on a grid that can be found on the walls of every school chemistry laboratory in the world. And yet, for more than half of the 150 years since the periodic table was first proposed by the Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, it has been nuclear physicists, not chemists, who have been adding elements to it. To date, in nuclear accelerator labs around the world, 26 transuranic elements have been discovered, the heaviest of which being element 118, named Oganesson.

Through this SFC-supported collaborative project involving SUPA, life sciences pool SULSA and medical imaging pool, SINAPSE, we are exploring ways to build on Scotland’s existing research and industry strengths in this important cross-disciplinary area.  A range of activities are mapping current university and industry activities and trialling ways of supporting new collaborative activities across academia and industry.

SUPA was shortlisted for a 2019 Herald Higher Education Award, in the 'Innovative use of technology' category. The shortlisting recognises our video classroom network, enabling physics doctoral students from all over Scotland to learn from experts in any of the eight SUPA universities. 

The award ceremony took place on 5 June 2019 in Glasgow. We lost out to the University of Edinburgh,  but it was fantastic to be shortlisted alongside some excellent and innovative projects.

More information on the awards can be found on the event website. 

Annual Gathering

• SUPA Annual Gathering 2026 will take place on 20 May 2026 in University of the West of Scotland, Paisley

Please see the SUPA News section for upcoming events, and links for registration.

For details of previous events run by SUPA, please see our Past Events pages.

The Scottish Funding Council recently awarded strategic funds to a joint initiative involving the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance (SULSA) and Scottish Imaging Network (SINAPSE) to develop and expand academic, clinical and industrial collaborations in Scotland around optical imaging.

Proof of Principle funding up to £5,000 is now available to support research or partnership activity with industry in order to drive novel optical imaging research in the context of life sciences and medicine. Projects that bridge the different research pools are strongly encouraged.

Closing date for applications is Friday 26 April 2019 at Noon. More information about this call, and the application form, can be found here.

Outstanding academics and celebrated professionals join Scotland’s National Academy

Scotland's National Academy, the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), has announced the names of 62 people becoming Fellows of the RSE this year. Hailing from sectors that range from the arts, business, science and technology and academia, they join the current RSE Fellowship whose varied expertise supports the advancement of learning and useful knowledge in Scottish public life.

SUPA is particularly pleased to note a number of its members being recognised:

Prof Stuart Reid, University of Strathclyde

Prof Robert Hadfield, University of Glasgow

Prof Gail McConnell, University of Strathclyde

Prof Jan Skakle, University of Aberdeen

In addition, Dr John Nicholls of M Squared Lasers has also been awarded Fellowship.

For information on all of this year's awardees, please visit the RSE news pages.

Weds 29 May, Technology & Innovation Centre, Strathclyde

The SUPA Gathering has built a reputation over the past 4 years as a showcase and celebration of world class physics research in Scotland. As well as talks highlighting some of the latest advances in physics research across all of the SUPA Themes, the programme offers examples of career opportunities for early career researchers, poster competition, and exhibition.

The 2019 Annual Gathering was very well attended, with 300 people from across SUPA universities and partners coming to the Technology & Innovation Centre at the University of Strathclyde.

This year's exhibition focussed on the impact of physics from both industry and academia, with over 20 exhibitors eager to talk to participants about the impact of their research and products.

Scottish innovation and collaboration have been highlighted in a new video produced for the APS March Meeting in Boston. Featuring interviews with our academics, researchers and the Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland, the video highlights our strengths across our seven research themes, and our Graduate School, providing advanced training for our doctoral students.

The APS March meeting is held each year in Boston, USA, for more than 11,000 attendees from academia, industry and major labs.

See the full video here.

Paul Soler, Professor in Experimental Particle Physics at the University of Glasgow, said in a statement: “This is the first time that a baryon has been conclusively observed containing two heavy charm quarks and is a new frontier in understanding the strong force that binds quarks together.” [Newsweek]

On the 6th of July 2017, Dr Patrick Spradlin, a SUPA physicist from the University of Glasgow, announced the discovery of a new baryon, called the Ξcc++, at the European Physical Society High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP) Conference held in Venice (Italy). The analysis was carried out by SUPA physicists working on the LHCb experiment at CERN. The findings are published in Physical Review Letters.