Thank you to Dr Stephen Wilkins, Dr Will Roper and Dr Eva Mueller from the University of Sussex for delivering an excellent workshop:  Extragalactic Astronomy 4-5 September 2023 at Herstmonceux Castle.

The programme included:

• Lightning Talks from Participants: All participants had the opportunity to give lightning (1 minute) talks on their own interests and research with a single slide.
• An Introduction to Galaxy Formation and Evolution Stephen Wilkins (University of Sussex)
• Modelling the spectral energy distributions of galaxies: Stephen Wilkins (University of Sussex), Will Roper (University of Sussex)
• Modelling the spectral energy distributions of galaxies: Stephen Wilkins (University of Sussex), Will Roper (University of Sussex)
• An introduction to galaxy formation simulations with SWIFT: Will Roper (University of Sussex)
• The Future of Cosmology Missions: Eva Mueller (University of Sussex)
• An introduction to galaxy formation simulations with SWIFT: Will Roper (University of Sussex)

Delegates were given a private tour of the Observatory Science Centre and time to explore the  beautiful grounds.  An added bonus was seeing the Milky Way! (Night sky photo courtesy of Louise Seeyav, University of Sussex)

Thank you to Jo Harris and her team at the Observatory Science Centre for the private tour of the centre for our SEPnet PGRs.

Kymani Armstrong Williams, postgraduate researcher at Queen Mary University of London enjoyed last year’s GRADnet/NPL Summer School so much he came back again this year when the event was held 10-11 July 2023 at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington.

Here he is proudly standing by to launch his water rocket in the grounds of Bushy House at NPL.

L-R His fellow team mates: Dr Sudha Ahuja, Royal Holloway University of London; Dr Tamsin Nooney, BBC R&D; Alexia Beale, postgraduate researcher at University of Surrey and Kymani. Delighted to see a familiar face!

I think Kymani used his expert knowledge from last year to get closest to the target!

Kymani said after the event: The SEPnet Summer School empowers and informs students to take the first tentative steps in finding careers beyond the end of their PhD.  It develops students’ networking skills; in particular, it builds on their confidence in being able to approach and have meaningful conversations with professionals.  The program also broadens the students’ view of job prospects by curating a large selection of former SEPnet physics graduates to give talks on their experiences outside academia. I have enjoyed and benefitted from the program so much, that I have attended two years in a row! 

The group receiving instructions on how to construct the water rockets to achieve the best aerodynamics! 

The GRADnet/NPL Summer School took place on 10-11 July 2023 at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, Middlesex.  This was a great opportunity for postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers to participate in interactive workshops and to network with each other and employers. 

Thank you to all our contributors for providing an amazing programme over the 2-day event:

NPL Welcome:  Richard Brown, Head of Metrology, National Physical Laboratory; Networking Skills and Translating your Research/PhD skills to Industry sessions:  Jennifer Rao-Williams, Skillfluence Ltd and Foresighting Workshop:  Dr James Claverly, NPL Head of Gov Relations National Physical Laboratory.

Careers Panellists:  Steve Chick, Analyst Team Lead, UK Civil Service (Ex Surrey); Katie Ley, Customer Relations Manager, Sopra Steria (Ex Surrey); Sonali Mohapatra, Quantum Innovation Sector Lead, National Quantum Computing Centre (Ex Sussex); Tamsin Nooney, R&D engineer, BBC R&D (Ex QMUL); Mitchell Peaks, AMO Physicist, Quantum Engineer, Riverlane (Ex Sussex); Laurence Stant, Senior Beam Diagnostics Engineer, Diamond Light Source (Ex Surrey) and Alexander Waterworth, Project Engineer, Cryogenic Limited (Ex RHUL)

Water Rockets and Laboratory Tours:  Andrew Hansen MBE, Outreach Manager; Rahim Bhatti, Talent Specialist and Luciana De Luca, National Physical Laboratory. 

Employer-led Workshops:  Knowledge Graphs, Language Models, and the Semantic Web: Dr Adam Bozson, Head of Data Science (Ex RHUL) and Alexandra Shatova, Machine Learning Scientist at Dyad AI; Measuring Metrology:  Dr Emma Bendall, Research Scientist; Dr Ben Russell, Principal Research Scientist and Science Area Leader for the Nuclear Metrology Group and Alexandre Tribolet, Higher Research Scientist in Radiochemistry, National Physical Laboratory and Intellectual Property Rights:  Dr Julian Potter and Ian Wilson, WP Thompson. 

“Thank you for organising the SEPnet event at NPL. I really enjoyed it! The SEPnet events are a fantastic opportunity to meet other PhD students and learn new skills.”  

“I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the opportunity to participate in the GRADnet/National Physical Laboratory (NPL) Summer School 2023: Opportunities beyond your PhD, organised by SEPnet. This remarkable summer school not only broadened my understanding of the diverse pathways available after completing a STEM PhD, particularly in industry, but also equipped me with invaluable skills essential for success as a PhD student in the professional realm.”  See full LinkedIn post here.

Public Lecture: The future of quantum computing, by Oliver Dial, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Quantum

Who:  All welcome!

What: Public Lecture: The future of quantum computing, by Oliver Dial, Chief Technology Officer, IBM Quantum

When: 7:00pm 12 July, 2023

Where: Clore Lecture Theatre, Huxley Building, Imperial College, London

Oliver Dial, CTO of IBM Quantum will speak about the challenges, the science and the technological potential of quantum computing. He is the Chief Quantum Hardware Architect Technology Officer at IBM Quantum in New York, an IBM Fellow well known for his work in on large superconducting quantum processors, leading the development of IBM’s first 20- qubit quantum processor.

All welcome: the talk is free but you need a ticket. Register here by 7 July.

Click to access Oliver_dial_flyerQR.pdf

Registration now open for Condensed Matter Physics in the City 2023: “Quantum Materials: Information and Technology. 

Who: This conference is open to all PhD researchers and early career postdocs

What: Condensed Matter Physics in the City 2023: “Quantum Materials: Information and Technology. 

When: 10-14 July 2023:  Hybrid mode, with talks delivered in-person at our London venue (Roberts Building, Room 508, UCL) and online on Zoom.

Where: University College London,  WC1E 6BT, Roberts Building, Room 508

We acknowledge gratefully funding from ICAM and Institute of Physics.  We proudly announce a great line-up of confirmed Speakers: 

• Sasha Balatsky (Nordita/U Connecticut)
• Erez Berg (Weizmann)
• Tony Carrington (Bristol)
• Amalia Coldea (Oxford)
• Oliver Dial (IBM Yorktown)
• Shuqiu Wang (Oxford)
• Pablo Jarrillo-Herrero  (MIT)
• Vidya Madhavan (UIUC)
• Jegeun Park (Seoul National University)
• Aline Ramires (PSI)
• Joaquín Fernández Rossier (INL, Portugal)
• Frank Schindler (Imperial College and Princeton)
• Steve Simon (Oxford)
• Ashvin Vishwanath (Harvard)

A provisional schedule for the meeting is now available here. In addition to the scientific program, there will be a public evening lecture on 12 July (speaker: Oliver Dial; venue Clore Lecture Theatre, Huxley Building, Imperial College London). More details later.

Register here:  https://research.kent.ac.uk/pqm/cmpcity23/comic-23-registration/

Please note that there is a registration fee of £10 to complete the registration (see above website for more info). Junior Scientists (PhD students and early career postdocs – within 5 years of getting the PhD) may request financial support, with preference for participants from ICAM nodes. Deadline for funding applications (part of registration process) will be on 9 June 2023. More details are on the registration webpage linked above.

We will consider contributed submissions from Junior Scientists made by 19 June 2023 for contributed talks. Please have an abstract and a short one-slide presentation to hand should you wish to apply for one. Please look for more details on the registration webpage linked above.

You can find further information on confirmed speakers and other useful information on our conference website: https://research.kent.ac.uk/pqm/cmpcity23/

The Topological states in solid-state devices as a resource for quantum computing workshop is taking place on 4-5 May 2023 in Oak Suite 1 & 2, Stag Hill Campus, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey. This workshop is in collaboration with the University of Surrey and Imperial College London and funded by SEPnet.

Dr Malcom Connolly, Imperial College London and Dr Eran Ginossar, University of Surrey will be hosting a dinner for the invited speakers on 3 May in central London.  Malcom will be giving a tour of his laboratory the following morning and all the speakers will join the student delegates at lunchtime in Guildford.

The 2-day event will include the following talks and workshop dinner for both invited speakers and student delegates:

Thursday, 4 May:

• Jaewoo Joo & Eran Ginossar: Ice breaker followed by Introductory talks
• Steven Simon: Topologically Ordered Matter and Why You Should Be Interested
• Andrew Higginbotham: Routes and challenges for engineering exotic superconductivity in hybrid structures
• Kristof Moors: Modelling topological material-based hybrid devices for quantum applications
• Craig Knox: Where’s the surface? Topological Insulator materials and devices
• Erwann Bocquillon: Microwave transport in HgTe topological insulators

Friday, 5 May

• Eytan Grosfeld: Signatures of Andreev and Majorana Excitations in Hybrid Superconducting Circuits
• Guanzhong Wang: Minimal Kitaev chains using coupled quantum dots in nanowires
• Delegates 2-minute presentations
• Beatriz Perez: Engineering topological phases with classical and quantum light
• Mathieu Delbecq: Zero energy states clustering in an elemental nanowire coupled to a superconductor
• Malcolm Connolly and Eran Ginossar: Research themes at ICL and Surrey

Thank you to Dr Eran Ginossar, University of Surrey and Dr Malcolm Connolly, Imperial College London for organising such a comprehensive programme on behalf of GRADnet.

Marta Podgórny, PhD researcher (She/Her) | MSc, AMRSC, MInstP, Organiser of the Open Dialogues across Physics and Astronomy 2023 Conference, School of Physical Sciences, Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM), The Open University, Milton Keynes.

The aim of the Open Dialogues across Physics and Astronomy conference was to create a friendly atmosphere and encourage PhD students to start cross-discipline conversations. With physic-related and life-related discussion panels, the unique character of the first edition of this conference back in 2022 made me want to be involved in the organisation of this year’s Open Dialogues conference.

My main motivation was to keep that friendly atmosphere and give students a chance to present their work to a general physics audience. From quantum physics to astronomy and even physics education, everyone was able to find something interesting. Moreover, by giving the audience the possibility to anonymously comment on students’ talks, young researchers were able to improve their presentation skills and prepare for a more stressful, big international conference.

As an organiser of Open Dialogues, I had a chance to meet amazing people and share not only knowledge but also experience. I learned a lot about conference details that normally we don’t pay attention to and also how to organise and delegate work. I believe that this is a valuable experience for every PhD student and a great opportunity to feel fully responsible for a project without being supervised. The feeling of pride and fulfilment after the conference is definitely worth all the work.  Thank you to Cristobel Soares and for all her help and support during the organisation and to GRADnet for funding the event.

For details of both student-led conferences in March 2023 see below:

• Open Dialogues Across Physics and Astronomy
• The imitation game: a growing affinity between simulations and observations of our Universe

The Student-led Conferences took place 27-29 March 2023 at the Open University and Kents Hill Park Conference and Training Centre in Milton Keynes.  The parallel conferences this year were:

• Open Dialogues Across Physics and Astronomy

• The imitation game: a growing affinity between simulations and observations of our Universe

Over 45 delegates attended the conferences and welcomed the opportunity to network at the welcome drinks on the first evening and conference dinner on the second night.  Delegates were treated to an array of inspiring talks, posters, and cross-discipline panel discussions.  Visit the links above for full programme details book of abstracts.

Thank you to all the invited speakers:

Catxere Casacio, University of Surrey
Payel Das, University of Surrey
Alyssa Drake, University of Hertfordshire
Pierre Ghesquierre, Michelin
Vincent Graves, The Open University
Zhen Guo, Universidad de Valparaiso, Nucleo Milenio de Formacion Planetaria (NPF)
Charanjit Kaur, University of Manchester
Stacy Kim, University of Surrey
Michael Kuhn, University of Hertfordshire
Annika Lohstroh, VacuTec Meßtechnik GmbH
Rob Yates, University of Hertfordshire

Well done to Katarzyna Nowak, University of Hertfordshire and Marta Podgorny, The Open University and their committee members for organising two successful student-led conferences.

The call for proposals for next years student-led conferences will be in October 2023.

For International Women’s Day and beyond, let’s all fully #EmbraceEquity. Equity isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a must-have.  A focus on gender equity needs to be part of every society’s DNA. And it’s critical to understand the difference between equity and equality.

The aim of the IWD 2023 #EmbraceEquity campaign theme is to get the world talking about Why equal opportunities aren’t enough. People start from different places, so true inclusion and belonging require equitable action.  All IWD activity is valid, that’s what makes IWD inclusive.

So give equity a huge embrace:  https://www.internationalwomensday.com/theme

See how our SEPnet partners are celebrating IWD2023:  Herts; Kent; The Open; Portsmouth; QMUL; RHUL; Southampton;  Surrey; Sussex

Are you thinking about how to commercialise your research? Perhaps you already have an idea and want to get started? Or maybe you just want to get insights that will help you transition from academia into a business environment…

The hook to get SEPnet PGRs to attend a 2-day workshop on 15-17 February 2023 at the IOP, run by Julia Shalet, author of “The Really Good Idea Test” and an experienced innovator who has brought many new propositions to market.

Over the two days, delegates worked in teams with a real case study, taking a tried and tested step-by-step process to find a viable commercial opportunity. In their teams they were able to practise a set of common business skills that employers are looking for.

Thank you to Julia for sharing toolkits and stories from her experiences working with start-ups through to corporates.

Thank you to the following SEPnet employer contacts for joining us at the networking evening event on day one at the IOP in London: Yash Balaji, Nanofabrication Engineer, Oxford Quantum Circuits; Matt England, Trainee Patent Attorney, WP Thompson; Phil Goddard, Head of Data Science, Kindred Group; Rupert Mellor, Trainee Patent Attorney, WP Thompson; Mitchell Peaks; AMO Physicist, Quantum Engineer, Riverlane; Renuka Pothuraju, Nanofabrication Engineer, Oxford Quantum Circuits; Stuart Revell, RTACS;  Sam Rowley; Higher Data Scientist, BEIS; Durga Sankar, Founder & CEO, Arcus News and Rosh Sellahewa, Senior Manager, Deloitte.  Your insight and advice on working in industry was much appreciated by all attendees.

These workshops are always very highly rated and delegates particularly like how interactive and practical they are.

“Great workshop, really appreciated having the first day in person it made a huge difference to my ability to engage with the resources.”

“Julia was very engaging and personable, really made us feel welcome”

“Excellent workshop, clear, concise and interactive.”