Programme overview

Particle and Nuclear Physics are two of the most important research areas in modern physics.

The study of Particle and Nuclear Physics brings together advanced experimental techniques, computational techniques, and theoretical understanding. The experiments are typically large collaborations working at international laboratories using highly sophisticated detectors. These detector technologies also find applications in medical physics and other forms of position sensing. The computational aspects deal with large data sets and use machine learning and other advanced techniques in data science. Theoretical nuclear and particle physics aims to interpret the experimental results in terms of mathematical models of the structure and evolution of the physical world. 

The programme is run by the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics within the School of Physics & Astronomy.  You will take part in the Institute’s activities, including regular seminars, colloquia and workshops involving physicists from around the world. You will also be involved in a research-level project as part of your dissertation.  The Institute is a member of the ATLAS, LHCb, CLICdp and FCC collaborations at CERN, the LZ dark matter at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota, and the DUNE and Hyper-K neutrino experiments at Fermilab (USA) and in J-PARC (Japan).  In addition, we perform experiments at other leading international accelerator facilities, such as CERN, LUNA (Italy), RIKEN (Japan), NSCL-MSU & Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory (USA) and MAMI-C & PANDA (Germany).

Career opportunities

This programme provides an exposure to frontier activities in experimental nuclear and particle physics and develops general transferable skills related to data analysis, research and communication.  This provides a platform for employment in research, science-based industry, medical physics, education and a wide spectrum of professions that call for numeracy and data analysis skills.