School of Physics and Astronomy

The School has announced the names of the research students who have produced the best PhD thesis.

The School awards annual prizes to postgraduate research students who have produced the best PhD thesis in each of the research areas. The prizes come with a cash award of £1000. The prizes are awarded in 2025 for research work successfully defended in 2024.

The winners are:

Many congratulations to all recipients.

Professor Andrzej Szelc has been elected as spokesperson for an international collaboration focused in neutrino detection.

The experiment, known as the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND), records over a million neutrino interactions per year and is essential for studying neutrino oscillations. It will preform precise measurements of neutrino interactions and search for new particles that might be hidden within the neutrino  beam. Located at Fermilab, America's particle physics and accelerator laboratory, the experiment started collecting data in December last year and has already acquired the largest sample of neutrino interactions on argon in the world.

Fermilab is home to a number of particle physics experiments, aimed at understanding the smallest building blocks of matter, and therefore helping answer fundamental questions on what are we made of, how the universe began, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy.

The SBND experiment is a collaboration of around 220 physicists from 41 institutions from the US, UK, Brazil, Spain and Switzerland, and will continue acquiring data at least until 2027, when the accelerator complex will shut down for two years to install an upgrade needed for the future DUNE experiment. Professor Andrzej Szelc will lead the SBND as its spokesperson for a two-year term.

He is the first spokesperson elected from outside the USA.

Professor Andrzej Szelc said: 

SBND is an amazing detector that will acquire an unprecedented amount of data and, thanks to the diligent work of many scientists around the World, will be able to extract physics measurement with fantastic precision. It is also a very fun collaboration to work in, with many great contributions from early career researchers:  students, post-docs – several of them from Edinburgh – that make this an excellent place to work in. It is a great honour to be elected as the SBND spokesperson and help lead the experiment in this extremely exciting period of data taking and first results. 

Professor Andrzej Szelc joined the University of Edinburgh in December 2020. Most of his career has been spent working on developing liquid argon detectors to search for rare processes. He has been part of the Fermilab liquid-argon neutrino programme since 2011 and has worked on measurements of electron-neutrino cross sections, searches for beyond the standard model particles, as well as developing applications for scintillation light in these detectors.

Discovery of a new way protein helps to organise DNA inside our cells.

Researchers have discovered a groundbreaking method in which the ‘structural maintenance of chromosomes’ (SMC) protein helps to organise DNA inside our cells.

Using advanced imaging techniques and computer simulations, the team which includes researchers from the University of Edinburgh, University of Strathclyde and Seoul National University, uncovered that the shape and binding of SMC proteins enable them to control DNA loops efficiently, without making too many mistakes.

The teams found that SMC proteins have a unique geometric shape, which naturally directs them to form DNA loops in a specific direction and orientation. This geometric constraint may be crucial for arranging genetic material but wasn't fully understood before. This study offers insights that could apply to many organisms, enhancing our understanding of genome organisation.

Dr Davide Michieletto, Royal Society Research Fellow commented:

SMC proteins have recently been discovered to perform so-called ‘loop extrusion’ but no one understands how they do it so effectively in the crowded and entangled environment of a cell’s nucleus. In this study we provide experimental and computational evidence that SMC structure itself may guide efficient loop extrusion by imposing a geometric constraint on its angular motion. We argue that anisotropy and broken detailed balance are the necessary ingredients to explain SMC efficient loop extrusion in vitro and in vivo.

The findings are published in the journal Nucleic Acids Research where they are highlighted as a ‘breakthrough paper’ – the top 1% most influential papers in the field. The journal states that such articles appear to solve a long-standing problem in their field or provide exceptional new insight and understanding into an area of research that will clearly motivate and guide new research opportunities and directions.

Professor Cait MacPhee advocates for biofilms innovation with policy makers.

The impact of biofilms on our environment

Did you know biofilms can both protect our planet and pose significant challenges? Professor Cait MacPhee dived into the dual nature of biofilms and their impact on our environment, as she shared insights with policymakers at the House of Commons.

This was part of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee’s ‘Under the Microscope’ inquiry, which received over 300 submissions.

Cait MacPhee, a Professor of Biological Physics and the Edinburgh Co-Director of the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC), outlined the significant positive and negative impact that biofilms have on our environment. She was one of six experts selected to give oral evidence to the committee.

During her presentation she advocated for the government to review the national infrastructure which could facilitate innovation and its exploitation to manage and engineer these biofilms. A significant proposal was the establishment of a biobank containing realistic biofilms for validation and standardised testing and regulation of biofilm technologies.

Waste recovery from historic landfills

Professor MacPhee’s work with policy makers does not stop at Westminster; she has been awarded the Science, Evidence and Policy Active Learning (SEPAL) Fellowship as a secondee to advise the Scottish Government.

This fellowship focuses on recovering critical raw materials from waste, exploring leading-edge technologies, and maximising resource recovery, particularly targeting historic landfill sites.

By improving communication between researchers and policymakers, scientific findings could be effectively translated into practical policies, with a goal of mitigating the impact of biofilms to promote a healthier, more sustainable environment.

Congratulations to Dr Nils Hermansson Truedsson who has been awarded the prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Hadrons as a portal to new physics

Theoretical physicist Dr Nils Hermansson Truedsson studies the building blocks of matter—tiny particles called hadrons, made of quarks and gluons. His research explores the strong force, one of nature’s fundamental forces, to understand how it shapes these particles. By using powerful simulations and mathematical tools, his work is helping to reveal whether this force might also offer clues to new physics beyond our current theories.

Despite its success, the Standard Model leaves several fundamental questions unanswered such as the origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe. Dr Hermansson Truedsson’s research uses hadrons as precision tools to test the Standard Model and search for signs of new physics.

Dr Hermansson Truedsson will lead a high-impact programme that bridges analytical and computational approaches, with his work opening new pathways for indirect searches for unknown particles and forces.

Supporting the next generation

The STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship programme is designed to reward talented researchers at UK universities and who are poised to make landmark contributions in physics. This fellowship will help develop their careers and push the boundaries of their field.

Researchers have developed a novel computational method that combines real diffraction data on the structure of materials with first principles quantum mechanical calculations. This may lead to breakthroughs in how we design and use materials in the future.

Basic principles

A key tenet of physics is that the structure of any given material determines its properties.

This principle forms the basis for most of contemporary research into all kinds of materials, whether we are thinking about concrete setting on pavements, the durability and performance of prosthetic implants, or the efficiency of drugs and their action mechanisms.

A significant impediment to understanding material properties comes from the fact that the structures themselves are intrinsically-dependent on the physical properties of their constituent atoms, and the motions of electrons about them.

The best currently available measurements for the structure of a material involve the simultaneous measurement of millions of billions of billions of atoms (~10²³), while highly accurate quantum mechanical calculations of atomic and electronic properties can deal at most with hundreds of atoms (10²-10³), owing to the extreme computational cost required for this level of accuracy. 

Computational approach

Researchers from the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions (CSEC) and the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Physics (ICMCS) have taken a big step forward by merging real diffraction data with quantum calculations.

The new computational approach offers a holistic, multiscale view of disordered materials such as glasses and fluids, from large-scale, bulk structural correlations, down to the properties of the constituent atoms and their electronic state.

Implemented in a unified software framework, the new method enables direct, on-the-fly feedback between interpretation of experimental measurements and highly accurate quantum mechanical principles.

The broad range of applicability is showcased through case studies ranging from simple fluids (krypton), through atomic (silica) and molecular glasses (amorphous ice), to complex mixtures such as water-methanol.

The framework provides scientists with a novel way to study disordered systems, enabling them to discover previously unexplored structure-property relations and emergent phenomena in complex materials.

Next steps

The new method aims to break down the longstanding divide between experiments and theory, combining the strengths of both to get the best possible understanding of the material of interest. It is hoped that this leads to a less strenuous route from material discovery and characterisation to useful applications across industry and society.

Funding has been received to create an international partnership to undertake training and research to understand biological complexity.

The School of Physics and Astronomy has been awarded €4.5M of funding from Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions to coordinate an international doctoral network. The network will consist of 12 European universities and research centres along with a number of non-academic partners.

Known as ‘Coherent Analysis Framework for Emergence in Biological Systems’, or ‘CAFE-BIO’ for short, the network will recruit and train fifteen doctoral candidates, each gaining a distinct theoretical perspective on complex biological systems.

Doctoral training

A notable feature of the programme is that each doctoral candidate will collaborate with researchers from two different academic institutions, combining previously separate techniques in innovative ways.

Also, each institution will lead on different problems inspired by biological systems. For example, one group, led from Barcelona, will develop new models capable of describing the full complexity of living matter, incorporating interactions that are absent in traditional condensed matter systems. A second group, led from Leiden, seeks to develop reliable methods to determine how such interactions play out macroscopically and govern an organism’s function. Finally, a group led from Warsaw will apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to aid the design of predictive models of complex biological systems. 

The cumulative effect of these endeavours will be to create a framework, firmly grounded in physical principles, that can be applied systematically to understanding the numerous forms of biological complexity.

Doctoral Candidates will also benefit from training provided by several non-academic partners, including University of Edinburgh spin-out Dyneval.

Recruitment

Recruitment for the fifteen positions will open in February 2026 with PhD research commencing in autumn 2026.

Partner institutions

This collaboration builds on a partnership between the University of Edinburgh, Georg-August Universität Göttingen and the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (also in Göttingen) that was supported by the government of Lower Saxony and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Further universities and research centres included in the partnership are:

• CEA Saclay
• CNR Rome
• Dioscuri Centre, Warsaw
• TU Eindhoven
• University of Barcelona
• University of Leiden
• University of Luxembourg
• University of Stuttgart
• VU Amsterdam

Non-academic partners include:

• Bacteromic (Poland)
• Dyneval Ltd (UK)
• Indiscale GmbH (Germany)
• Netherlands e-Science Center

Congratulations to postdoctoral research associate Dr Sophia Flury who has been awarded a PhD thesis prize from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

Dr Flury completed her PhD in the field of Astronomy. Her thesis, titled ‘Clearing the Path to Cosmic Reionization’, has been recognised for its outstanding contribution to the field.

The IAU PhD Prize recognises the exceptional scientific achievements of astronomy PhD students worldwide. Each of the IAU’s nine Divisions awards a prize to the candidate it identifies as having carried out the most remarkable work in the previous year. Sophia’s prize falls under the Division of ‘Galaxies and Cosmology’.

Sophia is currently working at the School’s Institute for Astronomy on characterising how feedback shapes galaxy evolution and the reionization of the Universe.

Larissa Palethorpe discusses the mysteries about exoplanets on BBC Four programme.

A School of Physics and Astronomy PhD student has brought their cutting-edge research to a national audience, appearing on the BBC science programme The Sky at Night to discuss their work on exoplanets.

Larissa Palethorpe, a doctoral researcher spoke about how her research is helping to uncover the mysteries of planets orbiting distant stars and what these worlds could tell us about the potential for life beyond Earth.

The episode ‘Exoplanets – Strange New Worlds’ broadcast on 14 July, showcases Larissa discussing the mystery of the exoplanet radius valley, along with presenter Maggie Aderin-Pocock, and what these findings mean for our understanding of the universe. Larissa also shares information on the discovery of exoplanet Gliese 12 b which she co-led last year.

Speaking after the broadcast, Larissa Palethorpe said:

Being able to communicate my research to a wider audience was a real honour and a dream come true!

Astronomers found a mysterious blast of radio waves while searching for fast radio bursts (FRB) from deep space, but it turned out to be an emission from NASA's inactive Relay 2 satellite.

Initially detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in June 2024, this 'pseudo-FRB' lasted less than 30 nanoseconds, much shorter than most FRBs, yet powerful enough to drown out all other signals from the sky.

Despite nearly 20 years of study, astronomers don't actually know what generates FRBs. One plausible theory involves a 'magnetar'—a highly magnetized neutron star. Relay 2, one of the first communications satellites, was launched in 1964. Just three years later, with its mission concluded and both of its main instruments out of order, Relay 2 had already turned into space junk.

Located just 2,800 miles from Earth, the proximity of the signal posed a challenge for astronomers, as the closest FRB is estimated to be 30,000 light-years away. Astronomers later realized that the signal appeared bright to the telescope because it was closer than the astronomical signals they had been looking for.

The defunct satellite was not initially thought to be responsible for the signal due to its ceased operations and outdated systems.

Researchers from Australian institutes, Curtin University and ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, as well as the University of Edinburgh, were involved in the study. The discovery that the signal source was not a FRB was disappointing for some, however, Dr Marcin Glowacki from the School’s Institute for Astronomy found value in the finding and explains:

It was like an interesting puzzle for us to localize this result from such a relatively close object to what we are used to! It certainly took some time and effort, as we had to adjust how we measured the signal with ASKAP to account for it being so close. It's like how phone cameras can struggle to focus on something very close to them. While we are mostly interested in astrophysical systems, this discovery is important for monitoring satellites in the future with ASKAP and other radio telescopes.

The observation appears to be an amazing chance discovery. However, this opens up an entirely new mystery: how could Relay 2 manage to emit a signal that had a brightness similar to an FRB?

Astronomers are not entirely sure, but Dr Glowacki explains some theories:

One theory is electrostatic discharge (ESD)—a build-up of electricity that results in a spark-like flash. Another is that a micrometeorite had struck the satellite and produced a cloud of charged plasma, right as ASKAP was observing the part of the sky it was in.

Another question to consider is, are other fast radio bursts actually 'pseudo-FRBs'? The biggest clue that an FRB is not an artificial signal is its dispersion measure - how far signals have travelled. This is due to ionized electrons slowing the signal at lower frequencies as FRBs travel through space, encountering plasma.

The 'pseudo-FRB' highlights the potential for satellites to mimic celestial phenomena, ruling out most FRBs as satellite signals due to their distinct galaxy-hosting origin points. Unlike distant FRBs, nearby signals lack characteristic time delays caused by ionized electrons. While researchers plan to scrutinize other satellite signals, this episode underscores challenges in distinguishing terrestrial from cosmic sources. Despite the rare occurrence and clear FRB dispersion measures, astronomers agree that vigilance is necessary to prevent future misidentifications.