Institute of Physics (IOP) - Evening Lectures

Dr Annelies Mortier

Dr Annelies Mortier is Assistant Professor in Astrophysics at the University of Birmingham. She works on several projects related to exoplanets and their host stars, determining stellar parameters and chemical abundances, battling and understanding stellar activity, characterising planets via radial velocities, and studying the Sun-as-a-star. When she is not playing with the stars or Sun on her computer, she goes to observe them in La Palma or Chile.

 

Dr Ben Gompertz is an Assistant Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. He researches the explosive signatures of collisions between neutron stars – the dead cores of very large stars that have been squashed down to an area the size of Birmingham under their own extreme gravity. These signatures include intense jets travelling at close to the speed of light, the radioactive glow of newly-forged heavy elements, and even “ripples in space-time,” known as gravitational waves.

A video of the lecture is on YouTube

Professor Dennis is Director of EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Topological Design and
Head of Theoretical Physics Research Group at the University of Birmingham.

Professor Mark Dennis and students from the Centre for Doctoral Training in Topological Design at the University of Birmingham talk about research in the centre, including knot theory, complex networks and design for 3D printing.

With the rise of commercial constellation implementation in low earth orbit (LEO), the near-Earth space environment is becoming increasingly challenging to monitor and protect. New observational techniques and instrumentation, as well as carefully considered policy frameworks, are needed to ensure that safe operations can be maintained by all space users. The Pervasive Sensing group at the University of Birmingham is exploring in-orbit conditional monitoring of satellites using inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) as a potential technique for dedicated observation of high-value space-based assets. I will discuss some of our recent results from both experiments and simulation.

Dr Leah-Nani Alconcel is an Associate Professor and space payload instrument engineer at the University of Birmingham in the School of Metallurgy and Materials. She has worked on NASA and ESA missions across the solar system including Cassini, Cluster, and JUICE. Here on Earth, she works to increase access to space-based assets and space data across countries and age groups, as well as developing novel systems for in-orbit intrasatellite monitoring.

We hear a lot about the subatomic realm and new discoveries but how do we actually "see” the behaviour of matter at this scale? This lecture will give an overview of how physicists have learnt ever more about the core of every atom - the nucleus - and the techniques scientists use to study it and how these methods links to our everyday lives.

Dr Jack Bishop is an Assistant Professor in Nuclear Physics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. His research encompasses studying the microscopic structure of nuclei, development of next-generation detectors and nuclear astrophysics. A lot of his work is performed on the two particle accelerators located in the Medical Physics building at the University of Birmingham; the Birmingham MC40 Cyclotron and the new HF-ADNeF neutron facility. 

Dr Geoff Hayes, Deputy Head of Radiotherapy Physics, University Hospitals Birmingham

Geoff read physics at Durham University, graduating in 1999 before moving to Birmingham,  completing his PhD in Physics from the University of Birmingham; examining the potential of different energies of x-rays to induce cancers in a human cell line. His experiments involved using a clinical accelerator at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to simulate the x-ray spectra from an atomic bomb. After his PhD, Geoff worked as medical physicist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham– specialising in radiotherapy. In 2022 he was appointed as the head of radiotherapy treatment planning, and deputy head of radiotherapy physics.