Leading scientists from the UK and around world will meet at Durham University next summer to present the latest in cutting-edge space research.

Congratulations to the winners of The 2024 Physics Award for Excellence this year’s winners are -

We have become part of an incredible space project called BlackGEM. This partnership grants us access to advanced telescope array in Chile, boosting research and educational opportunities.

The UK’s Higher Education Minister has visited Durham University to show her support for an education and recreation summer camp for Ukrainian young people. Baroness (Jacqui) Smith visited the University’s Physics Department to meet young participants in a three-week residential summer school organised by the charity fund Tomorrow, UAPhysicsOnline and OneUkraine gGmbH (CORRECT) and in coordination with Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War.

Professor Richard Massey, from our Department of Physics, explores the potential of a new generation of telescopes.

On 23 June, Durham academics Dr Richard Wilman (Physics) and Dr Nikita Chiu (Responsible Space Innovation Centre) participated in a public panel discussion on cosmic endings and space-based threats. The event was organised by Heidelberg University's Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies (CAPAS) and took place after a performance of the astronomically-inspired opera “Collision”.

Ariadna Calcines Rosario, Head of Optical Design at Durham’s Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CfAI), has received the Award to the Best Oral Presentation of the over 100 given at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation Conference in Yokohama, Japan.

We’re playing a key part in the UK’s drive to develop quantum technology to benefit a wide range of areas including healthcare, computing and security.

Dr Alex Guttridge has been awarded a prestigious Royal Society University Research Fellowship. The Fellowship enables Dr Guttridge to research the topic of programmable assembly of ultracold molecules in optical lattices.

“Diversity of thought benefits everyone, but when the focus is on the short-term costs of making changes, disabled people are often deterred from asking for what they need.”

We’re part of an international team of astronomers who have been able to take a photograph of the halo of gas around a galaxy for the first time.

On March 22, Durham University's Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) hosted the International Masterclass on Particle Physics—a hands-on event where high school students analysed real data from the Minerva neutrino detector. Over one hundred students from six local high schools—Durham Johnston, Durham Sixth Form, Newcastle High School for Girls, Thirsk School and Sixth Form, Wellfield Academy, and Sunderland Sixth Form—participated in the event.