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

ESTRELLAS: The power of supporting women in STEM

Our Centre for Advanced Instrumentation recently hosted an event dedicated to celebrating and supporting women in STEM. Speakers from across the globe came to Durham to share inspirational stories from their impressive careers, showing how they came to be where they are today.

The 2024 Rochester Lecture will be delivered by Prof Anne L'Huillier

Anne L'Huillier is a Swedish/French researcher in attosecond science at Lund University in Sweden. During the first part of her career, she worked at the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, in Saclay, France, first as a PhD student until 1986, then as a permanent researcher until 1995. She was postdoc at Chalmers Institute of Technology, Gothenburg. Sweden in 1986, and at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA in 1988, before moving to Lund in 1995.

Photo of Anne L'Hullier stood beneath a tree in autumn colours

Durham University to host the National Astronomy Meeting 2025

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

The Ogden Centre at Durham University with a projection of the solar system projected onto its outer walls.

Winners of 2024 Physics Award for Excellence Announced

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

Stocki image of a winners trophy and confetti

Durham joins cutting-edge astronomical project BlackGEM

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.

Higher Education Minister visits Ukrainian summer camp at Durham University

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.

Jacqui Smith watches as Ukrainian summer school students demonstate a Physics experiment

A new generation of telescopes will probe the ‘unknown unknowns’ that could transform our knowledge of the universe

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

Artistic impression of a telescope in space

Art-Science Collaboration on Apocalyptic Space Threats

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”.

CfAI Head of Optical Design gives award winning talk at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation Conference in Japan

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.