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On 30 October, the Department of Physics participated in International Dark Matter Day - celebrating the invisible mater that makes up 85% of all mass in the cosmos

On 6 November, the Department of Physics hosted its annual International Observe the Moon Night, inviting members of the public to explore our nearest celestial neighbour through telescopes, experiments, and conversations with planetary scientists.

We work among extraordinary people doing extraordinary things; get to know some of them by reading these quick-fire interviews.

New findings from NASA’s Cassini mission show that Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons and a top contender for extra-terrestrial life, is losing heat from both poles – indicating that it has the long-term stability required for life to develop.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Oxford, has achieved a world-first by creating plasma 'fireballs' using the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator at CERN, Geneva, to study the stability of plasma jets emanating from blazars.

Professor Peter Norreys has been recognised for his outstanding contributions to fundamental studies of high energy density plasmas using high power petawatt-class lasers.

Dr Alex Picksley, a former DPhil student in Oxford’s Department of Physics and St John’s College (2017–2021), has been awarded the 2025 Simon van der Meer Early Career Award in Novel Accelerators.

The University of Oxford's brand new MSc in Quantum Technologies had its official launch last week.

QFX builds on world-leading trapped ion quantum computing research at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics and was founded by Associate Professor Joe Goodwin alongside several researchers from his group.

Professor Ard Louis has been awarded the Institute of Physics Sam Edwards Medal and Prize for pioneering the development of novel mathematical and numerical models that have contributed to our understanding of soft matter and biological physics.

Professor Julia Yeomans OBE FRS from the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford has been awarded the 2025 Institute of Physics Paul Dirac Medal and Prize.

Professor Alexander Lvovsky has been named a 2025 American Physical Society Fellow for pioneering contributions to the technology of preparation, manipulation, characterisation, and storage of quantum states of light.