New Head of School Aſter 3 years as Head of School, Prof Andrew Cameron has handed over the reigns to our new Head of School, Prof Graham Turnbull. We wish him all the best in his new post. Holweck Prize 2015 Prof Isabelle Ledoux-Rak was presented with the Holweck Medal and Prize on Wednesday 16th September, here in the School of Physics. This is awarded jointly by the Instute of Physics and the Société Française de Physique. She gave a fascinang talk on her pioneering work on nonlinear opcal properes of organic materials. Photo shows Prof Ifor Samuel, Director of Research, School of Physics, University of St Andrews; Dr Frances Saunders, President of the Instute of Physics; Prof Isabelle Ledoux-Rak, award winner, Director of the Quantum and Moleculear Photonics Laboratory at the D'Alembert Instute of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan; Dr Alain Fontaine, President of the Société Française de Physique Photo credit: Wendy Clark October 2015 Physics & Astronomy Newsletter Alumni
Transcript
New Head of School
After 3 years as Head of School, Prof Andrew Cameron has handed over the reigns to our new Head of School, Prof Graham Turnbull.
We wish him all the best in his new post.
Holw eck Pr ize 2015
Prof Isabelle Ledoux-Rak was presented with the Holweck Medal and Prize on Wednesday 16th September, here in the School of Physics. This is awarded jointly by the Institute of Physics and the Société Française de Physique. She gave a fascinating talk on her pioneering work on nonlinear optical properties of organic materials.
Photo shows Prof Ifor Samuel, Director of Research, School of Physics, University of St Andrews; Dr Frances Saunders, President of the Institute of Physics; Prof Isabelle Ledoux-Rak, award winner, Director of the Quantum and Moleculear Photonics Laboratory at the D'Alembert Institute of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan; Dr Alain Fontaine, President of the Société Française de Physique
Photo credit:
Wendy Clark
October 2015
P hy s i c s & A st r on om y N e w s l e t t e r
Alumni
Cel l swal lows laser
Malte Gather and his team in our School have made a breakthrough in their biolaser work. They successfully tracked a day in the lives of a number of white blood cells by feeding them microlasers. Their work has been published in Nano Letters (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.nanolett.5b02491). "Science" ran a lead news story in web and print (http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2015/07/scientists-arm-cells-tiny-lasers) and three weeks ago a camera team from the BBC’s 4Tech program visited the lab. In the future the technique is expected to allow tracking of cell migration in the body and could provide insights into how cancers spread in the body.
In collaboration with immunologist Simon Powis at the School of Medicine, the Soft Matter Photonics Group found that by ‘swallowing’ an optical micro-resonator cells gain the ability to produce green laser light. This miniature technology, which sounds like it might be more at home in the Ant Man movie, may soon develop into a useful tool in biomedical optics: the spectral composition of the laser light generated by each cell is different and can be used to distinguish and track large numbers of cells over prolonged periods of time. In their initial study the researchers demonstrate tagging of a few dozen human white blood cells and then track the cells for a day. In principle, the approach allows barcoding and reliably distinguishing up to several hundred thousand cells simultaneously.
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Cryo -Users Exeter 2015
On the 7th September two technicians (Mr Reg Gavine and Mr Chris Watson) from the Department attended the 2015 meeting of Cryo-Users. This bi-annual meeting was hosted by the University of Exeter this year and is organised by technicians for anyone who is involved in the running and subsequent liquefying of helium gas and related systems. The two and half day meeting involved talks and discussions on topics ranging from the
sustainability of helium liquid on a global scale to the in- depth and up to date procedures for the recovery of helium gas in closed systems. Most of the UK`s Universities which have low temperature research programmes running and helium liquefiers installed, were represented at this meeting which was part sponsored by companies such as BOC, Linde, Air Liquide, Wessington Cryogenics, Isis (Oxford) and Central Compressors. The meeting provides a platform and forum for the sharing of ideas and problem solving solutions relating to any of the technologies involved in Cryogenics e.g. vacuum and high/low pressure systems for helium and nitrogen gas and liquid.
Artist’s impression of a group of cells which have been turned into tiny lasers
Cell with green microlaser and spectrum, credit ACS
Dr Scott Gregory and Prof Moira Jardine of this School are members of a research team that has just published a paper that shines light on some fascinating orbital dynamics of extra-solar planets.
"Hot Jupiters" are giant Jupiter-like exoplanets that orbit some 20 times closer to their host stars than the Earth does to the Sun. What has been found is that these "Hot Jupiters" can form and migrate towards their infant stars in as little as a few million years.
An international research team, led by French astronomer Dr Jean-François Donati, and including Dr Gregory and Prof Jardine, has secured preliminary evidence that Jupiter-like planets, although probably formed far away, quickly move to orbits close around their baby stars. The discovery, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS, Oxford University Press), will help astronomers better understand how planetary systems like our own solar system form and evolve into maturity.
Dr Scott Gregory, STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow said: “These infant stars are the equivalent of one-week-old, if their expected 10-billion-year lifetime is scaled down to the span of a human life.”
In our solar system, rocky planets like Earth, or Mars, are found near the Sun whereas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn orbit much further out. In 1995 a giant planet was discovered sitting very close to its host star. Many more have been found since then. Astronomers demonstrated that such planets must form in the outer regions of the protoplanetary disc - the matrix from which both the central star and surrounding planets are born - then migrate inwards and yet avoid falling into their host star. This could happen either very early in the lives of these extrasolar planets, when still embedded within their primordial disc, or much later, once multiple planets are formed and mutually interact in a rather unstable choreography - with some being pushed inwards at the immediate vicinity of their stars.The research team has now discovered preliminary evidence that the first of these two scenarios is occurring.
Professor Moira Jardine said: “Although more data is required for a definite validation, this first result is quite promising and clearly demonstrates that the technique our team has devised is powerful enough to solve the puzzling question of how hot Jupiters form, and how they end up close to their host stars.”
Fi fe Tech f i rm Photos ynergy Ltd to t r ia l new subsea Lightpath system
A St Andrews University spin-out technology company is to start sea trials of a new compact subsea lighting system before the end of the year.
Photosynergy Ltd (PSL) said industry feedback had led it to further develop its Lightpath concept, a system that last year scooped Subsea UK’s prestigious Innovation for Safety Award.
PSL said testing of its SLS5000 system had led to comments about size and underwater usability.
The company has now created a compact unit which provides a light source to saturation divers via an LED attached to the umbilical at the divers’ end.
The development of the SLS2000 follows the successful launch earlier this year of the deep-water SLS7000, a version of Lightpath that may help identify the position and orientation of seabed operations down to 3,000m.
Despite the cutbacks in the North Sea arising from the low oil price, PSL said firms were still keen to invest in proven deep-water technologies.
“We had been testing the SLS5000 with a number of clients during its development phase and had received feedback from divers and their teams on the benefits of having a low power, minimal sized package, which would not impede the diver and which could be illuminated from the diver end as opposed to the dive bell end,” PSL director Don Walker said yesterday.
“The first unit was ready for testing just two months after we received the initial feedback on specific requirements.
“As a sealed-for-life unit, it’s a first for PSL and simplifies the construction in terms of its complexity, part count and minimal size, and maintenance while retaining the lighting concept.
“It’s our aim to start sea trials by the end of this year at the very latest.”
While Lightpath has been targeted at the subsea sector, PSL believes it could be used in a wide range of industries from guide path illumination through to other applications in challenging, hazardous and submerged environments.
PSL has its origins in scientific research undertaken at St Andrews University’s Photonics Innovation Centre at North Haugh. Its long-term aim is to establish Lightpath as a global commercial product for the domestic upstream oil and gas supply chain.
Macmi l lan Cof fee Morning
Many thanks to all the bakers who brought
in loads of tasty treats... 5 chocolate cakes
this time, which is a record, thanks to
everyone who donated or bought cakes
and Scott for rattling the tin under
everyone’s wallets! We raised a total of
£450 which is amazing.
Thank you
Wendy
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NAS A Astronaut comes to St Andrew s
NASA astronaut Duane Carey is in Fife for a series of events at the University of St Andrews and in the local community.
Lieutenant Colonel Carey served as the pilot of the space shuttle Columbia on the fourth Hubble Space Telescope Servicing (STS) mission in March 2002. Space Shuttle Mission STS-109 orbited the Earth 165 times, and covered 3.9 million miles in over 262 hours.
During his visit Carey delivered presentations and discussions at the University and at Auchmuty High School (Glenrothes). He shared his experiences as a space shuttle pilot, the astronaut member of Mission Control, and a leader in three different US Air Force jet fighter squadrons.
Read more here http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/news/Panda_news/bds_carey_18_9_15.php
Tiny Magnets mimic s team, water and ice
Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), in collaboration with a research group headed by Stephen Lee from the University of St Andrews, created a synthetic material out of 1 billion tiny magnets. Astonishingly, it now appears that the magnetic properties of this so-called metamaterial change with the temperature, so that it can take on different states; just like water has a gaseous, liquid and a solid state. This material made of nanomagnets might well be refined for electronic applications of the future – such as for more efficient information transfer. A synthetic material – created from 1 billion nanomagnets – assumes different aggregate states depending on the temperature: the so-called metamaterial exhibits phase transitions, much like those between steam, water and ice. This effect was observed by a team of researchers headed by Laura Heyderman from PSI. "We were surprised and excited," explains Heyderman. "Only complex systems are able to display phase transitions." And as complex systems can provide new kinds of information transfer, the result of the new study also reveals that the PSI researchers' metamaterial would be a potential candidate here.
The major advantage of the synthetic metamaterial is that it can be customised virtually freely. While the individual atoms in a natural material cannot be rearranged with pinpoint precision on such a grand scale, the researchers say that this is possible with the nanomagnets.
Read more on this here http://phys.org/n…/2015-09-tiny-magnets-mimic-steam-ice.html
Congratulations to William Whelan-Curtin (School of Physics and Astronomy), who has progressed to the final stage in the Converge Challenge competition. William has progressed through to the ‘investor pitch stage’ and will present ‘CONALTRA – providing data centre optical transceivers that are both low power consumption and low cost’ against five other projects from four Scottish universities later this month. Converge Challenge is a high profile pan-Scotland company creation competition and entrepreneurship development programme aimed at creating a new generation of entrepreneurs in Scotland.
Slow l ight speeds up the microscopic wor ld
A team of researchers from this School and the University of York has
slowed down the speed of light in a process which could have major
applications in fundamental science and medical diagnosis.
Dr Yoshihiko Arita and Professor Kishan
Dholakia of the School of Physics and
Astronomy at the University of St Andrews and Dr Mark Scullion and
Professor Thomas Krauss of the University of York created a specially fabricated
nanostructure and used it to drive particles at high speed along a track of light.
The work, published in the international journal Optica, could open up more
rapid methods of understanding disease or indeed the way we look at the
biological world in general.
As light bends through a transparent object such as a marble, it exerts a minuscule but important force. The marble is unlikley to move much as the force is so weak, but the force is sufficient to move and propel particles that are much smaller, such as those that are the size of blood cells or smaller.
Read more here http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/news/Panda_news/kd_slowlightpropels_17_09_15.php
St And Out Publ ic Engagement Bursar ies 2015
The recipients of the 2015 public engagement bursaries supported by the Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund have been announced. These awards support novel and innovative projects and activities communicating research and creating dialogue within our communities.
From Physics and Astronomy:
Giuseppe Pica, PhD student. School of Physics and Astronomy ‘A Human Quantum Computer’ An activity inviting you to contribute your brain to a working quantum computer and learn quantum mechanics.
Astronomers led by St Andrews astronomer Professor Simon Driver, have measured
the rate at which mass is being transformed into energy over a two billion year
timeline. The bad news is that the Universe is liberating less energy today than in the past indicating a slow decline consistent with a long lonely coast into a cold dark and near-empty Universe. The good news is that this state will never quite be reached and the current stars in the Universe will continue to shine for at least 100
billion years.
The results are from the Galaxy And Mass Assemby (GAMA) survey. The GAMA team encompasses over 100 astronomers from across 30 institutes based
predominantly in Europe and Australia.
Over the past seven years the team have assembled distance measurements to
over 200,000 galaxies using the Anglo-Australian Telescope and imaging data from the ultraviolet to the far-infrared (including NASA and ESA space missions).
Galaxies emit radiation at almost all wavelengths so in order to measure the energy output of a representative population it is vital to measure the complete spectral energy distribution: i.e., the energy being emitted across the entire electromagnetic spectrum.
Read more here http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/news/Panda_news/spd_universedying_28_08_15.php
TIRAMISU
Prof Graham Turnbull, Dr Ross Gillanders and Paulina Morawska travelled to the SEEDEE-DOVO test site, near Leuven in Belgium, to show the group’s work at the TIRAMISU project’s final demonstration. The demonstration had over 25 project partners in attendance – the PandA group were at a stand under a large tent to show the materials and instrumentation developed during the project, while the vehicle-development partners were outside in extremely muddy conditions thanks to the late-September Belgian rain.
The guest list for the demonstration was illustrious, with Princess Astrid of Belgium the guest-of-honour, and other VIPs including the Japanese ambassador to Belgium and several high-ranking generals. The technology developed by the PandA team was well-received by VIPs and end-users alike, with much interest shown in using the detector in the field in the near future.
Research Fellows: Liam Collins-McIntyre Kyle Ballantine Nikolaus Metzger
Lucia Leonat Christine Koepferl Joe Llama
Thomas Roland Deepnarayan Biswas Lethy Jagadamma
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A new Phsycis t
Congratulations to Aurora Sicilia-Aguilar and Bernd Braunecker on the safe arrival of Verónica on 18th July 2015
Congratula t ion and farewel l to ….
Dr Jane Greaves on her appointment to a Readership at the University of Cardiff starting on 1st October 2015
Mr Steven Balfour, Cleanroom Technician, who has moved to the Scottish Oceans Institute
We wish them both every success in their new positions.
Promot ions
Congratulations to Dr Paul Cruickshank and Dr Charlie Baily who have both been promoted to the position of Senior Teaching Fellow
2015 Undergraduate Aw ard Scheme
The School was delighted to hear that two of its 2015 graduates had been selected for the "Highly Commended"
rating for the Undergraduate Awards Scheme that is run from Dublin. This award scheme accepts advanced
coursework from students around the world, and awards prizes for international and Irish participants.
Today we are excited to learn that both students have won the top prize in their categories. Eilidh Johnston has won the mathematics and physics prize, and Conor MacDonald the medicine prize.
There have been a couple of new links put onto the School webpage: First is a link to the Who’s Who poster, which is only accessible to people within the school, so you don’t need to run round to the posters anymore when you just can’t put that name to the face! This will be updated in the Autumn at the same time as
the posters.
Second one is the PandA Marketplace, which again is accessible to only school people, so if you are looking for accommodation, have somewhere you’d like to rent out, looking for a flat share, or for example that bike has been sitting around for ages and collecting dust, then list it on the Marketplace, someone here may be looking for one.
Email me at wc23 and I’ll include it on the page. Please let me
know when the ad can come down, don’t want it being full of out of date items.
Both links are available on the Staff and Students page – Who’s Who under Contact Details and PandA Marketplace within Staff Re-sources or scan the QR code.
Vis i t ing Ciênc ia sem Fronte i ras s tudent Cayke Fe l ipe dos Anjos is
awarded a p lace on the Dean's L is t
Cayke Felipe dos Anjos studies Physics at the University of São Paulo (USP) in São Carlos and, through gaining a scholarship from the Brazilian "Ciência sem Fronteiras" programme, studied at the University of St Andrews from September 2014 to August 2015 as an undergraduate study abroad student.
Studying modules in the Schools of Mathematics & Statistics, and Physics, Cayke was awarded a place on the Dean's List which is an annual award for academic excellence promoted by the Deans of the University of St Andrews.
Cayke said of his time spent in St Andrews:
"I am very grateful for the opportunity of studying in St Andrews and receiving this award. It is amazing to be acknowledged by one of the finest and most traditional Universities of the United Kingdom. I am sure that this award reflects not only the time I have spent studying, but also the lecturers that helped me through this experience. In particular Professor Chris Hooley, with whom I worked during my second semester and part of the summer on my research project. I believe that all of this experience will make a big difference to my future career and life."
See more at: h ttp : //c s f u k. in t e rn a tion a l .ac .u k/a b o u t/s wb - u k - c o m m u n i t y / s t u d e n t -
e x p e r i e n c e . a s p x # s t h a s h . q q I U H 1 d Q . d p u f
This is a new section for our quarterly newsletter, so we’d love to hear what our Alumni are up to. Email your story to [email protected]
Dr Jenni fer Stone jo ins ManSat 15 years a f ter w inning i ts f i rs t NAS A scholarship
M a n S a t Ltd has appointed Manxwoman Dr Jennifer Stone as Regulatory Affairs Manager – 15 years after she was awarded the company’s inaugural scholarship to the NASA United Space School. Initially educated at Ashley Hill Primary School, Jennifer was an A-level student at St Ninian’s High School when she won the scholarship to spend two weeks at the USS in the summer of 2000. It was the first time ManSat had awarded the scholarship, and CEO Chris Stott says it is clear evidence that the private sector investing in education does work.
Jennifer is the daughter of Rosemary and Dr Alan Stone of Onchan. A Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a Member of the Institute of Physics, she has been working and living in Japan for several years, but today (October 1st) joins ManSat’s London office, where she will work closely with Dr Don Jayasuriya, a 25-year veteran of satellite frequency engineering and regulation. She was awarded her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2011, and is a graduate of the 2007 International Space University Space Studies Program (SSP’07 Beijing). Jennifer also holds Masters degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an M.Phys. (1st Class Honours) in Astrophysics from the University of St Andrews. For more on the story see http://www.isleofman.com/News/details/74187/dr-jennifer-stone-joins-mansat-15-years-after-winning-its-first-nasa-scholarship
The newsletter is compiled by Wendy Clark. If you’d like to suggest an item for inclusion in the next newsletter, please contact Wendy on [email protected] by 11th December 2015.
