John Brown grew up in Dumbarton where he became a stargazing addict at age 10 with the start of The Sky at Night, the launch of Sputnik, the opening of Jodrell Bank and viewing of Comet Arend-Roland. He started Dumbarton Academy Astronomy Club before entering Glasgow University (GU), with the support of a Student Grant plus a GU Bursary Exam award (12th place). Following his 1st Class BSc (1968) in Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, during which he did vacation research at ROE (1966) with Michael Smyth and Harvard (1967) with Gerald Hawkins (“Stonehenge Decoded”) he was appointed to a 3 year GU Astronomy Dept. Research Assistantship with teaching duties conducting doctoral research under the supervision of Regius Professor PA Sweet (of Sweet-Parker reconnection and Eddington-Sweet circulation fame).
HORIBA Jobin Yvon IBH recently marked the official opening of their new premises on Finneston Street Glasgow. Horiba Jobin Yvon IBH Ltd was formed in 2003 when the Strathclyde University spin-off company IBH merged with Horiba Jobin Yvon. Formed in 1819 Jobin Yvon is one of the oldest names in Spectroscopy and IBH are one of the pioneers of physics spin-offs in Scotland having been incorporated in 1977. IBH is now the World’s leading supplier of fluorescence lifetime systems, which, along with fluorescence microscopy and plate readers, are the most rapidly growing parts of the whole fluorescence market.
Many of us are familiar with the SUPA video conferencing (VC) rooms in each of our institutions. They are used predominantly to provide the Graduate School courses for SUPA students, but also provide a useful meeting resource for research activities in the less busy times between semesters.
The European Space Agency’s LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated the technology needed to build a space-based gravitational wave observatory.
In what has been an exceptional few months for the field of gravitational wave science, with the first direct detection having been recently announced, [link ‘first direct detection’ to newsletter article on GW detection] the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced the first results from the LISA Pathfinder mission – and they exceed all expectation.
For many years the international gravitational wave community has targeted having ground and space based observatories. The ground-based network is now operating with mind-boggling sensitivity, and continually improving, such that we have now made the first direct detections of gravitational waves. But we are only just scratching the surface of the scientific rewards to be harvested from decades of research to date.
The CM-CDT is a doctoral training partnership between SUPA Condensed Matter physics activities at St Andrews, Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh Universities. The CM-CDT has a threefold purpose: to provide students with a rigorous, broad graduate education across the spectrum of Condensed Matter Physics; to train them in skills that equip them for the workplace, be it industrial or academic; and to foster a vibrant, diverse research environment for their PhD projects. This endeavor is supported by EPSRC, University, Scottish Funding Council and other funding sources.