Dr Kostas Nikolopoulos, Birmingham Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy, has been elected UK ATLAS Physics coordinator.

Dr Nikolopoulos will take on the high profile role from October 2014 to October 2016. He will be responsible for facilitating and encouraging physics-related activities among UK groups as well as coordinating the UK physics working group structure and organising the annual ATLAS-UK Collaboration meeting, the main ATLAS UK event.

The new appointment will see Dr Nikolopoulos join the ATLAS-UK Collaboration Board meetings and assist with ATLAS-UK consolidated grant submissions.

Dr Nikolopoulos was elected by representatives of the UK institutes participating in the ATLAS experiment. He comments:

It is an honour and a welcome challenge for me to oversee the UK’s extensive involvement in ATLAS physics and help maximise our impact in view of the new Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data-taking period at an increased centre-of-mass energy.

Professor Andy Schofield, Head of the School of Physics and Astronomy, said:

On behalf of the School, I’m delighted to congratulate Dr Nikolopoulos on this fantastic appointment. This is further recognition of Birmingham’s contribution to the science and leadership of this major international research endeavour. Kostas is proving to be an excellent colleague and we are, as with all the physics Birmingham Fellows, absolutely delighted to have secured him in Birmingham.

The Birmingham Fellowship scheme is an innovative University initiative demonstrating commitment to attracting the brightest and the best to develop their academic careers at Birmingham. To date the University has appointed over 60 outstanding, high potential, early career researchers as part of this sector leading programme.