The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics (RPC) at the University of Oxford is a world-leading hub for research at the frontier of modern physics, dedicated to understanding the fundamental laws of nature. By giving to the RPC, you will be helping to nurture students and early-career researchers, sustain an interconnected community, and enable researchers at every stage to pursue bold ideas; you will be investing directly in the people who are shaping the future of the field – in a culture of curiosity, rigour, and shared discovery.
Theoretical Physics Fund
Donations to the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics will have an impact on the day-to-day lives of our students and academics. Your gift – one-off or recurring, and of any size – helps us foster a culture of research excellence and enrich graduate study. Giving to the Theoretical Physics Fund enables us to host visits from international colleagues, sustain our vibrant programme of seminars, meet our computing needs, and maintain workspaces where ideas thrive. Crucially, a donation to the fund also allows us to support our DPhil students and postdoctoral researchers directly through conference travel and essential computing resources. As alumni will remember, conferences are vital for early-career researchers to share their work, develop new ideas, and build lasting collaborations. Similarly, funding high-specification computing equipment for a student or post-doctoral researcher can accelerate progress and sharpen scientific results.
Supporting students
By funding an eight-week summer internship through the RPC Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP), you will be giving a young student valuable experience in a research environment and the opportunity to explore their research interests as they look towards future study. Currently, we are able to accept only 3% of applicants – meaning many exceptional students miss out. Your gift towards UROP opens the door for more bright minds to join us for a formative summer of research.
You can make an immense difference in a student’s academic life by funding a final year DPhil studentship as institutional scholarship funding will commonly support only three or 3.5 years of study, whereas the typical Theoretical Physics degree takes four years. This gift will allow the Centre’s best students to complete important research with collaborators in the RPC, and propels them to the next stage of their career.
Your donation of a Master’s Course Fellowship funds the difference between home and overseas fees for a Master’s student. This important gift allows the RPC to welcome more of the brightest students from around the world to study Theoretical Physics at a formative point in their study, opening up the potential for a long-lasting relationship between great young minds and the Centre.
Your generous gift of a DPhil studentship will provide crucial support for an exceptional DPhil student in Theoretical Physics, allowing the RPC to recruit from top-ranking students internationally and enabling a young person to pursue advanced studies at one of the world’s leading physics departments. Studentship donors benefit from the rewarding experience of following the progress of their supported student throughout their degree, witnessing their journey from defining their research interests to establishing meaningful collaborations in the RPC and beyond, and working towards publication. Studentships cover four years of DPhil fees and stipend, allowing a student to focus entirely on research.
Your gift of an endowed DPhil studentship will make a significant and long-lasting investment in graduate education and research excellence at the RPC. An endowed studentship establishes a legacy of supporting exceptional students in the present day and generations to come, fostering innovative thinking far into the future of the field. The RPC is immensely grateful for its most recent gift of this type, the Denys Firth Scholarship in Theoretical Physics, made possible by a generous £1.52 million endowment from Denys Firth (Oriel College, 1969, Physics).
To find out more, speak to Professor Andre Lukas: andre.lukas@physics.ox.ac.uk
Supporting Leverhulme-Peierls Fellows
The Leverhulme-Peierls (LP) Fellowship programme at RPC brings the most talented early-career theoretical physicists worldwide to Oxford for three-year post-doctoral positions. The inaugural phase of the LP Fellowship was made possible by the extraordinary generosity of the Leverhulme Trust. As this phase comes to an end, your gift will help us to sustain this programme which has contributed so much to the vibrant research environment of the RPC.
The programme, led by Professor Shivaji Sondhi FRS, offers exceptional early-career researchers the freedom to pursue bold ideas in theoretical physics. Fellows enjoy an unparalleled degree of intellectual independence for their career stage, setting their own research agenda while benefiting from mentorship and a stimulating cross-disciplinary community at RPC.
The fellows’ research spans diverse interests, including the role of symmetries in understanding the classification and characterisation of various phases, the interplay between the non-trivial topology of electron wavefunctions and strong electron-electron interactions, connections between quantum error correction and the topics of critical lattice models and conformal field theories, and quantum many-body dynamics, thermalisation, and quantum computing. With your support, we can continue to give talented future leaders the freedom to explore, innovate, and make transformative contributions to theoretical physics.
There are two routes available: either to fully-fund a Fellow, or provide partial funding to uplift a postdoctoral research position to a Fellowship, attracting internationally-competitive candidates to the RPC.
To find out more, speak to Professor Andre Lukas: andre.lukas@physics.ox.ac.uk
Supporting the Wykeham Chair Professorship
The Wykeham Chair in Physics is one of Oxford’s most distinguished professorships and a cornerstone of the Rudolf Peierls Centre; Professor Shivaji Sondhi FRS is the current Wykeham Professor of Physics. Named after William of Wykeham, founder of New College, it has been held by some of the most influential physicists of the last century, including Nobel Laureate Willis Lamb and Sir Rudolf Peierls, after whom the Centre is named. Despite its importance, the Wykeham Chair is not currently endowed, leaving it vulnerable to future funding decisions. Your gift of an endowed professorship would have a powerful and enduring impact on the Centre, solidifying its position at the forefront of theoretical physics research and benefitting countless academics, researchers, and students in years and generations to come.
To find out more, speak to Professor Andre Lukas: andre.lukas@physics.ox.ac.uk
Legacies and planned giving
Including the Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics in your will can be a meaningful way to preserve your association with us, making a deep and lasting impact.
To find out more, speak to Felicity Fearon: felicity.fearon@dae.ox.ac.uk