SPA Colloquia

The Colloquium series of the School of Physics and Astronomy aims to attract high profile speakers on topics of broad interest in Physics. A number of the talks are on cutting edge research by physics academics. Others are from speakers with training in physics but pursuing interesting careers outside academia. The Colloquium series includes Physics across Disciplines events, where we typically have short talks by a number of speakers : physicists, biologists, engineers and others who apply physics ideas and techniques to diverse scientific problems.

Physics is defined by its big questions about the nature of the universe as well as its techniques and results while, to some extent, it is simply what physicists do. The Colloquium is a mirror of this duality. It follows in the tradition of Departmental seminars previously organised by Prof. John Charap. A complete list of these seminars dating back to 1965 is found here.

The audience for the colloquia is diverse, including faculty, post-docs, PhD students as well as undergraduates. We ask speakers to keep a good part of the talks broadly accessible to advanced undergraduates.

Future and past seminars  

E.g., 29/04/2024
E.g., 29/04/2024
Datesort ascending Room Speaker Title Series
March 28th, 2014 at 16:30 David Sizer Lecture Theatre Dr Alexandre Polnarev Imprints of Primordial Gravitational Waves on the Cosmic Microwave Background Detected by the BICEP-2 Experiment SPA Colloquium
March 7th, 2014 at 16:00 David Sizer Lecture Theatre Alix Pryde SPA Colloquium : Showbiz Physics SPA Colloquium
February 14th, 2014 at 16:30 David Sizer Lecture Theatre Mr Matthew Machowski Nuclear latency - where physics affects international peace SPA Colloquium
January 17th, 2014 at 16:30 David Sizer Lecture Theatre Prof. James Olsen "Nature of the New Boson: a lonely Higgs, or the first of many cousins?" SPA Colloquium
December 13th, 2013 at 16:30 David Sizer Lecture Theatre Prof. Massimo Bianchi String theory : even if it is not true, it is well-conceived. SPA Colloquium