As a physics graduate student in Scotland, you are a SUPA student. This gives you the benefit of being part of a grouping of eight physics departments/schools, and the additional opportunities provided by the SUPA Graduate School. Our goal is to help you to become the best physics graduate students in the world.

The SUPA Graduate School provides you with video conferenced lectures – in the newly upgraded rooms at each university – bringing the expertise of eight universities to your doorstep. Please read through the SUPA Graduate School Student Brochure which contains details of all the courses, what you are expected to complete, and all the information you need to know about being SUPA.

You will most likely be attending several induction events around this time – your local physics department/school, college, university, possibly CDT, and more. These events will provide you with a wealth of information that is designed to help you get the most out of your time as a post-graduate student.

Brexit has thrown up many questions, not least of which is the current and future status of Horizon 2020 and other EU research funding.

The European office of the UK Research Councils – UKRO is seeking guidance and we will provide information when it’s available. A statement from Jo Johnson, Minister of State for Universities and Science, is available on the UK Government website.

Razorbill Instruments is a start-up company that makes cryogenic compatible products that are used as the critical part in various physics experiments. We are, in a very real sense, a SUPA company. Of our three founders, Jack Barraclough, Cliff Hicks and me, Cliff was a SUPA researcher when the company was formed and Jack and I were just graduating from SUPA’s very own Condensed Matter CDT. Ever since the company was officially founded – at the end of 2014 – we’ve kept these very close ties to SUPA. 

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.

 SUPA PaLS open day, 27th February 2013, Heriot Watt University