Yearly Archives: 2015

25Aug/15
Big Bang Fair

Joint Ogden Trust/SEPnet Outreach Officers

Outreach Officers

Looking for challenging jobs in Physics Outreach & Public Engagement? Two universities within SEPnet are looking for Outreach Officers, both part-funded by the Ogden Trust. The roles are quite different but both include delivery and development of schools outreach. Herts will be developing a public engagement programme for their physicists while Open will be developing a new citizen science project.

University of Hertfordshire:

http://www.herts.ac.uk/contact-us/jobs-and-vacancies/academic-vacancies

(Doesn’t allow a direct link, so please follow academic vacancies link).

Deadline: 14 September 2015

The Open University:

http://www3.open.ac.uk/employment/job-details.asp?id=8706&ref=ext

Deadline: 30 September 2015

Both roles will get support from The Ogden Trust and their networks. They will also get support from the SEPnet Outreach team including the Director and the current officers.

SEPnet also provides seasonal SEPnet Outreach Officers Meeting, bespoke training for officers and an annual SEPnet Outreach Officers Away Day. Please get in touch with SEPnet’s Outreach Director if you’d like to talk about both roles and their links with SEPnet. For enquiries about each role, please get in touch with the respective university.

10Aug/15

Connecting Industry and Researchers in Physics

A SEPnet Networking Event: SEPnet’s Graduate Network (GRADnet) is organising a networking evening to facilitate collaboration and links connecting industry and physics with postgraduate research students and researchers (PGRs)

Wednesday 16 September 17.00-20.00, University of Southampton.

Who should attend

  • SEPnet PGR students who want to meet employers from physics-related industries to find out about career opportunities, make contacts and explore research and business ideas.
  • SEPnet partner researchers who want to build links with industry to explore how their research can create impact.
  • SMEs, businesses and employers in physics-related industries interested in developing links with universities and recruiting physics graduates.

During the evening:

  • Hear from panellists Kathie Bowden of Institute for Environmental Analytics and UK Space Agency; Simon Crook of EPSRC; Anke Lohmann, KTN Head of Photonics & Quantum Technologies; Julian Potter of WP Thompson IP; Nick Walker of eOsphere; Andrew Witham of Symetrica and others talk about the benefits of knowledge exchange and what physics postgraduates and postdocs can offer industry.
  • Participate in a speed networking session
  • Build ongoing relationships between industry and researchers through placements, mentoring or research collaboration
  • Refreshments will be provided.

How to register:

This event is FREE to attend.  Book early by clicking on the following link: http://bit.ly/1Kr2ij4. For enquiries, contact gradnetadmin@sepnet.ac.uk

THIS EVENT IS SUPPORTED BY THE INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

31Jul/15

Reflecting Photonics IYL garden voted Best Garden

Designer Helen Elks-Smith’s Reflecting Photonics won a Gold medal and the People’s Choice Award at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) show at Tatton Park. The garden was inspired by the International Year of Light and the fibre optics work being carried out at University of Southampton. An outreach team of post-graduate students from Southampton took part in the event and spoke to over 2,000 people, handing out information on the garden and fibre optics research at Southampton.

Pearl John, Southampton’s SEPnet Outreach Officer and Public Engagement team leader for Physics and Astronomy, who has been working on the project said, “I’m very glad that the enthusiastic response we’ve had from people visiting the garden and talking to our outreach team. Having our outreach team there really helped the garden win the People’s Choice Award for Best Garden.”

The International Year of Light themed garden was also featured in a special BBC programme on the RHS Tatton Show, which can be seen here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b063jx7p .

08Jul/15

GRADnet Summer School

The GRADnet Summer School took place at IBM’s Hursley Laboratory on the 6-8th July 2015. The three day Residential School focused on the skills required for effective leadership and maximising the impact of physics research. In order to explore the technological, societal, economic, political impact of physics and of physicists, researchers discussed examples of how physics have made an impact on the world and what the future impact could be. Experts from academia and industry presented specific case studies.

Thirty Five Physics PhD students from around the South East region attended and the overwhelming feedback has been positive.They gained tremendously from the IBM workshops: the Hackathon and Strategic Leadership challenges as well as the other team exercises including building a trebuchet from garden canes.

01Jul/15

SEPnet Software Bootcamp

With the objective of equipping physics students with industry-relevant technical skills, SEPnet partner, Queen Mary’s School of Physics & Astronomy, organised a Software Bootcamp at QMUL’s Mile End campus in June. The event was attended by physics students from the SEPnet partner universities. The aim of the bootcamp was to equip students with technical skills needed by industry and provide an insight into the role of a software developer. In this blog post, Sean Cooper, 3rd year MSci Physics student at QMUL shares his experience of being thrown in the deep end of programming and what he learned.

29Jun/15

Juno Champion for QMUL

Queen Mary’s School of Physics and Astronomy commended for commitment to gender equality. QMUL’s School of Physics and Astronomy has been awarded Juno Champion status by the Institute of Physics (IOP) in recognition of action they have taken to address the under-representation of women in university physics. The school becomes only the 13th in the country to be awarded Champion Status, the highest of three levels awarded to those taking part in the IOP’s Project Juno.