Latest news and comment

Dr Robin Timmis from the Department of Physics has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Culham Thesis Prize: Plasma Physics Group.

An international team of physicists has achieved a significant advance in laser science, demonstrating for the first time a practical route to dramatically boosting the intensity of high-power laser light.

Dr Pablo Bilbao has been awarded the European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division’s PhD Research Award.

Physicists at the University of Oxford have contributed to a new study which has found that iron-rich asteroids can tolerate far more energy than previously thought without breaking apart.

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 Robert J Ewart has been awarded the European Physical Society Plasma Physics Division’s PhD Research Award; he is the seventh winner from the University of Oxford in recent years.

Professor Simon Hooker has been selected to become an American Physical Society Fellow for his pioneering contributions to the development of plasma-based, high-power optical waveguides and their application to laser-driven plasma accelerators.

Professor Tony Bell FRS has been awarded the Royal Society’s Rumford Medal for his seminal contributions to theoretical developments of cosmic ray acceleration and origins.

Dr Yonadav Barry Ginat, Leverhulme-Peierls Fellow at the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics at the Department of Physics, has been awarded the International Astronomical Union’s PhD Prize for Division D

Researchers from the Department of Physics have taken a step closer to demonstrating a new generation of high-repetition-rate laser-driven particle accelerators; these compact accelerators could drive myriad applications.

Researchers at the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford have found solutions to two major challenges with laser-plasma accelerators.