A major success for Physics & Astronomy in Scotland

Image: ATLAS experiment ©CERN
Image: ATLAS experiment ©CERN

We are delighted to announce that the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews have been rated as one of the top centres for Physics & Astronomy research in the UK.

PHYESTA, the joint School of Physics & Astronomy between the universities of Edinburgh and St Andrews, was ranked 4th out of 41 submissions in the REF-2014 listing as judged by the Research Fortnight Research Power index. This is particularly impressive as together we submitted over 100 staff for assessment and 96% of our research outputs were measured as 4*/3* (world-leading/internationally excellent). PHYESTA was thus placed fourth in the UK and first in Scotland.

Our performance on quality was even better; we were ranked third in the UK. This confirms the exceptional performance of our staff, our excellent facilities, and our world-leading research.
 

Power Ranking* Quality Index Rank 
1. Cambridge 7
2. Oxford 1=
3. Imperial College 9
4. PHYESTA 3
5. University College 16

*The Research Fortnight Quality Index (QI) measures the quality of our research outputs, the research environment and the impact of our research. The Research Fortnight Power index values the influence of our research by multiplying QI by the number of academic staff reported.

Our success is a ringing endorsement of our ability to collaborate effectively and to expand our research base by hiring some of the best young researchers in the world. We look forward to continued growth and the exciting research ahead in fields as diverse as cosmology, photonics, condensed matter, extrasolar planets, elementary particles and nuclei, and the physics of life.