Department of Physics

We are one of the UK's top Physics departments and have a reputation for high-quality teaching, driven by outstanding research, performed in an inclusive and welcoming community.

Welcome to the Department of Physics at Durham

The Physics Department is a thriving centre for research and education.

We are proud that our Department closely aligns the teaching and learning experience for its students with the research-intensive values and practices of the University. Research-led teaching is embedded at all levels from first year laboratory reports to our final year MSci flagship individual research projects.

The Department incorporates the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics, is home to the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology and the Institute for Computational Cosmology. The Ogden Centre is also the base for our innovative outreach programme for school children and their teachers.

A graphic showing an on-campus scene of students walking past the modern, glass-sided library building with the University's Physics and Astronomy Top 100 ranking emblazoned on it

Find out more about us

2nd in the Guardian University Guide 2024

3rd for Physics and Astronomy in the Complete University Guide 2024

96% of our research outputs are world-leading or internationally excellent (REF 2021)

3rd in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2023

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Before you arrive Welcome and Induction

News

The annual Gareth Roberts lecture returned on Wednesday 9 March with Dame Sue Ion - watch online

The Honorary President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear (NSAN) and member of the ONR Independent Advisory Panel, Dame Sue Ion, delivered this year's annual Gareth Roberts Lecture on Wednesday 9 March at 4.30pm.

Gareth Roberts Lecture 2022 (image montage of Sue Ion with power station cooling towers and wind turbines)

Scientists unveil most accurate virtual representation of the Universe

An international team of researchers, including Professor Carlos Frenk, Professor Adrian Jenkins and Dr. John Helly from our Department of Physics, has produced the largest and most accurate computer simulation to date of our local patch of the Universe.

Professor Carlos Frenk elected to Royal Society Council

Congratulations to Professor Carlos Frenk who has been elected to the Council of the Royal Society.

Professor Carlos Frenk in light blue shirt and dark blue jacket smiles at the camera

Prof Simon Cornish to lead International Collaboration on “Developing Molecular Quantum Technologies”

Ultracold molecules hold great promise for a variety of quantum technologies, including a new generation of quantum computers and quantum simulators. Prof Simon Cornish will lead a new £1.6 million International Collaboration funded by EPSRC that aims to deliver this vision.

I'm a quasar get me out of here - growing supermassive black holes buried in galaxies

Quasars are extremely bright objects with massive black holes at their centres. Usually, quasars are obscured by donut-shaped rings of dust surrounding them.

Picture of hidden quasars in thick cloud of dust and gas

First-of-its-kind measurement of Universe’s expansion rate

Our physicists are part of an international team that has successfully used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion of the Universe.

RSE awards scholarship to Durham Undergraduate

The RSE is supporting personal and professional development for undergraduate astronomy students.

Festive images created by trapping individual laser-cooled atoms

As a demonstration of single atom trapping, researchers in the Quantum Light and Matter research section have created and imaged festive arrangements of individual laser-cooled caesium atoms. Each bright pixel in their images corresponds to light captured from a single caesium atom cooled to a temperature a million times colder than room temperature and trapped in a tightly focussed laser beam called an optical tweezer.

Festive images - Angel Optical tweezer arrays

Department commemorates Alan Lotts' five decades in Physics

A retirement party was held for Alan Lotts on Friday 19th November to celebrate 5 decades of outstanding technical support to the astronomy group.

Muons found to be faithful probes of exotic superconductors

Researchers in the Centre for Materials Physics have demonstrated that spontaneous magnetic fields, detected by implanting sub-atomic muons in superconducting materials, are likely to be intrinsic to an exotic, time-reversal symmetry broken, superconducting state.

Prof Tom Lancaster co-writes new textbook, 'Muon Spectroscopy: An Introduction', published by Oxford University Press

Durham Physics Department's Prof Tom Lancaster is one of the authors of a new textbook on Muon Spectroscopy, which has just been published by Oxford University Press.

2nd year Physics student wins Axiom Space award

Iyngkarran Kumaraguruparan has been awarded a STARS scholarship for his Microgravity Printed Circuit Board, one of only 3 winning entries (and the only one produced by a single individual) in this year's prestigious international competition.