The SUPA Graduate School requests applications for Postdoctoral and Early Career Researcher exchanges with Europe, North America, China and India.
Applications should be made by completing the attached form either in PDF or MWord and submitting this to Valerie.evans [at] supa.ac.uk by 9am Monday 13th February 2012.
The main purpose of the exchanges is for the most able postgraduates and early career researchers working within SUPA to build experience of international collaboration with academia and/or industry. The exchange may build on existing, or establish new collaborations.
Each successful Postdoctoral or Early Career Researcher candidate may be the recipient of a single award only, up to a maximum value of £7,500 and each exchange must be for a minimum period of at least one month. The funding must not be used for attendance at conferences, training seminars and the like. Eligible costs are restricted to economy travel and subsistence at the agreed institutional rate. The costs of the research are not eligible.
Selection process
The SUPA Graduate School will be responsible for selecting the best Postdoctoral and Early Career Researcher candidates in an open competition from within SUPA which will be judged by the SUPA Graduate School Management Committee (GSMC).
Criteria for selection will include:
• evidence of the ability of the candidate (output, leadership);
• likely benefits to the research of the candidate (new skills, techniques likely to be acquired) as result of the exchange;
• likely benefits to the longer-term career of the Postgraduate or Early Career Researcher as result of the exchange;
• evidence of wider benefits to SUPA as a result of the exchange; and
• prospects of sustained collaboration as a result of the exchange.
Following the exchange, successful candidates agree to provide to the GSMC a report covering:
• the aims, objectives or themes that the exchange relates to;
• a brief scientific report (2 pages A4);
• a list of outputs (publications/other); and
• detailed costs involved.
The reports will be reviewed by the Scottish Funding Council.
Attachments
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 SUPA II Exchange form Postdocs.doc | 124.5 KB |
 SUPA_II_Exchange form.pdf | 286.07 KB |
The School of Physics & Astronomy is recruiting lecturers. Follow the links below to find out more.
Astronomers have mapped dark matter on the largest scale ever observed. The School's Dr Catherine Heymans and Associate Professor Ludovic Van Waerbeke of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, will present the results today to the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. Their findings reveal a Universe comprising an intricate cosmic web of dark matter and galaxies spanning more than one billion light years.
An international team of researchers lead by Van Waerbeke and Heymans achieved their results by analysing images of about 10 million galaxies in four different regions of the sky. They studied the distortion of the light emitted from these galaxies, which is bent as it passes massive clumps of dark matter during its journey to Earth.
Their project - known as the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Lensing Survey (CFHTLenS) - uses data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. This accumulated images over five years using the wide field imaging camera MegaCam, a 1 degree by 1 degree field-of-view, 340 Megapixel camera on the CFHT in Hawaii.
Galaxies included in the survey are typically six billion light years away. The light captured by the images used in the study was emitted when the Universe was six billion years old – roughly half the age it is today.
The team’s result has been suspected for a long time from studies based on computer simulations, but was difficult to verify owing to the invisible nature of dark matter. This is the first direct glimpse of dark matter on large scales showing the cosmic web in all directions.
“By analysing light from the distant Universe, we can learn about what it has travelled through on its journey to reach us. We hope that by mapping more dark matter than has been studied before, we are a step closer to understanding this material and its relationship with the galaxies in our Universe.”
Dr Catherine Heymans, School of Physics & Astronomy
Dr Thomas Kitching is the Cosmology Working Group coordinator, based in the School's Institute for Astronomy. "The dark matter map we have produced looks back over 75% of the age of the Universe, to a time when it was very different to today. By tracking the evolution of the Universe over cosmic time, the team at Edinburgh will investigate how dark energy has come to dominate the present day Universe.
"Over the next few months we will be using this data to map the evolution of the expansion of the Universe and learn about dark energy, which is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. We will test theories of gravity itself to determine if Einstein's general relativity is correct or not. We will also use it to determine the properties of neutrinos, ghostly particles that interact with normal matter only very weakly."
The research was supported by the European Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre.
Image gallery
Professor Emeritus Peter Higgs has been given the City of Edinburgh Council's 2011 Edinburgh Award, which pays tribute to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the city.
Commenting on Prof. Higgs' achievements, Lord Provost George Grubb said: "His work with the University of Edinburgh has put this city on an international stage and as such he has undoubtedly proven to be a most deserved winner of one of Edinburgh's most prestigious civic awards."
Professor Higgs will be presented with an engraved quaich at a ceremony in early 2012. A cast of his handprints will be made, to be engraved - and immortalised - on a flagstone in the City Chambers quadrangle.
Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider, an underground facility near Geneva, have been searching for evidence of the theoretical particle first postulated by the University’s Professor Peter Higgs. Scientists at CERN have said that tantalising hints have been seen by experiments there, but these are not yet strong enough to claim a discovery.
Unifying theory
Experiments at CERN have produced a considerable amount of data, analysis of which suggests the existence of the particle. However, researchers say more work is needed to claim the discovery of the Higgs.
Professor Higgs was working at the University in the 1960s when he developed his eponymous theory. The Higgs boson particle is thought to be a tiny yet crucial building block of physical matter that gives mass to all other particles. It has a key role in the Standard Model of physics, which defines our understanding of the physical world and has dominated the field of particle physics for 40 years.
Over the coming months, scientists will be further refining their analyses. However, a definitive statement on whether the Higgs exists will require more data, and is not likely until late in 2012.
Atlas experiment
A team of 15 scientists from the University, led by the School's Dr Phil Clark and Dr Victoria Martin, are working on the Atlas experiment at CERN, which is researching the basic forces that have shaped the Universe.
"It's an incredibly exciting time to be working on the Atlas experiment, to see the first glimpse of what might turn out to be the Higgs boson," said Victoria Martin. "The Atlas team in Edinburgh has made key contributions to the experiment and are looking forward to 2012, particularly to analysing the additional LHC data and finally settling the answer to the big question on our minds: does the Higgs boson actually exist?"
Peter Higgs and the Higgs Boson
We have created a website that explains more about Peter Higgs and his work.
Dr Victoria Martin, a lecturer and researcher in particle physics at the University of Edinburgh, explains the background to the hunt for the Higg's Boson in an article in The Scotsman.
You can find out more on our new website: Peter Higgs and the Higgs Boson.
The University of Edinburgh intends to appoint up to 100 Chancellor’s Fellowships across the University’s 22 Schools as an investment in the future of teaching and research. These prestigious awards are aimed at early-career individuals of the highest potential who have begun to establish a reputation for the highest quality research at the forefront of their discipline and who have a commitment to learning and teaching at university level.
Currently, the key research priorities in the School of Physics and Astronomy are:
- Experimental particle physics at the Large Hadron Collider
- Collider physics (BSM, model building, Monte Carlo, perturbative QCD).
- Studies of strongly-correlated electron systems, quantum ordering and novel phases.
- Characterization and synthesis of materials at extremely high pressure, from dynamic shock or static.
- Local-universe cosmology (to tie in with GAIA)
- Fundamental cosmology (to tie in with Euclid)
However, applications would also be considered in: Astrobiology; Computational Materials Science; Development or modelling of new materials for use in bio-, solar, thermoelectric or nuclear energy applications; The era of reionization (to link with LOFAR & HST); lattice QCD; and nuclear physics.
For information on how to apply, please visit: Chancellor's Fellowships at the University of Edinburgh
Up to 15 fully-funded Prize PhD studentships and over 100 other funded PhD places in Physics in Scotland.
The Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA) opens a single door into all Physics PhDs in Scotland. When you apply for a SUPA Prize PhD Studentship you will also be considered for all other funded places available in Physics departments in Scotland.
The major themes pursued by researchers in SUPA
• Astronomy and Space Physics
• Condensed Matter and Material Physics
• Energy
• Particle Physics
• Photonics
• Physics and Life Sciences
• Nuclear and Plasma Physics
Applications should be made to SUPA by Friday 10th February 2012
The Edinburgh Physics Education Research Group (EdPER) has won the Formative e-Assessment category at this year's Scottish e-Assessment Awards.
The entry, submitted by the School's Simon Bates, Ross Galloway and Karon McBride, described assessed assignments that use PeerWise, an online question sharing and peer review application developed by the University of Auckland.
'Using PeerWise for Formative Peer e-Assessment in Introductory Physics Courses' reported on the successful use of scaffolded tasks in two introductory-level physics courses. Instructional scaffolding gives students additional support when new concepts are first introduced, with the support gradually reduced as student learning progresses.
"The biggest benefit was writing questions and having to put a lot of thought in to explain the problem to other people. It really helped my understanding of parts of the subject." Student workshop participant
The EdPER team developed four scaffolding activities for workshops preceding PeerWise assignments. The initial scaffolding activity was well received, with class leaders reporting a notable 'buzz' during the workshops and many students opting in subsequent workshops to use PeerWise to work collaboratively during break times.
In the post-course survey of students, 65% agreed that developing original questions improved their understanding of course topics. One student wrote: "The biggest benefit was writing questions and having to put a lot of thought in to explain the problem to other people. It really helped my understanding of parts of the subject."
About EdPER
EdPER is a group of School staff and students that aims to adopt a more scientific approach to Physics and science teaching. The group undertakes evidence-based research into aspects of physics teaching and learning at university level. Our aim is to develop and evaluate research-based instructional strategies, by gathering and analysing both quantitative and qualitative data, with a view to being able to improve student learning in the subject and related cognate areas.
The group was formally established in 2008 and comprises staff from across the various institutes within the School, together with postgraduate students, e-learning developers and learning designers. Some highlights of our recent work have been in the area of developing a diagnostic test of data handling skills and the incorporation of student generated assessment content in introductory courses.
To learn more, speak to Karon McBride, Learning Designer: karon.mcbride [at] ed.ac.uk
The Scottish e-Assessment Awards
Launched in 2009, the Awards recognise excellence and innovation in using e-Assessment to improve the educational experience of learners. More than 50 entries were received in 2011. The judging panel was made up of members of the Board of the UK's e-Assessment Association and Soffed (a partner in the running of the Awards in Scotland). The award was collected at eAssessment Scotland 2011 in Dundee.
Image gallery
The LHCb experiment in CERN - in which the School takes a leading role - is exploring processes important to the understanding of what happened fourteen billion years ago, when the Universe began.
Crammed within an infinitely small space, equal quantities of matter and antimatter were created. But its composition changed as the Universe cooled and expanded: just one second after the Big Bang antimatter had all but disappeared, leaving only matter to form everything that we see around us.
This matter-antimatter asymmetry relies upon a phenomenon known as CP violation. It is predicted by the Standard Model of Physics but at a much lower level than we need to explain the early Universe.
The LHCb experiment measures the decay of elementary particles known as B mesons, and in this case a quantity known as φs. Experimental results which deviate from the Standard Model's predictions would suggest new physics sources of CP violation. Fermilab in the USA has previously measured φs, but the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider has improved the precision by a factor of two with preliminary results and will soon improve this by a factor of ten. These new results, which were eagerly awaited, were announced at the 'Lepton Photon' conference in Mumbai in August.
"This is a milestone for the LHCb experiment. It is a flagship result for LHCb, where we have now made the World's most precise measurement of this quantity." Peter Clarke, Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics
Peter Clarke, of the School's Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics, said: "This is a milestone for the LHCb experiment. It is is a flagship result for LHCb, where we have now made the World's most precise measurement of this quantity. A team of seven physicists and PhD students from the University of Edinburgh was one of the groups leading the measurement of φs by analysing decays of Bs mesons into J/psi and phi mesons.
"Measuring φs is all about understanding the origin of difference in behaviour of matter and antimatter. This difference is a key ingredient in the evolution of the early Universe. Without it we would have no 'matter' left today and we wouldn't be writing this article.
"We know that the matter anti-matter difference in our Standard Model is insufficient to explain the Universe. So we are looking to find evidence of new sources of this effect, ie discover new physics phenomenon. This is the big motivation for us all."
The Standard Model, quarks and the missing anti-matter
Matter and antimatter are thought to have existed in equal amounts at the beginning of the Universe, but as the Universe expanded and cooled, an asymmetry developed between them, leaving a universe that appears to be composed entirely of matter. Heavy quarks provide a good place to investigate this phenomenon because the heavier the quark, the more ways it can decay, and all of these decays are described by the Standard Model.
The Standard Model predicts matter-antimatter asymmetry, but at a level which is too small to explain the observed asymmetry in the Universe. Deviations from the predictions would bring an indication of new physics. b-quarks are produced copiously at the LHC, which makes them the particle of choice for studying matter-antimatter asymmetry in the laboratory. Quarks are never produced alone, but always travel in company: they are accompanied by another quark giving rise to the family of particles called B mesons. It is these that LHCb studies.
