The December 2008 research newsletter
Editorial
Welcome to the December 2008 research newsletter. As it's almost christmas, I thought it would be best to keep this sweet and short. Hope you all have a great holiday and that we can come out all guns blazing next year!
[KW]
Physics Undergraduates in Summer Bursary Successes
Undergraduate students from the Physics department have been awarded two of the top three prizes awarded for end of project reports in the EPSRC Vacation Bursary Scheme, which provides funding for undergraduate students to join research groups over the summer vacation.
Nicholas Houston won first prize (£100) for his project with Aidan Arnold and Erling Riis in which he used acousto-optical modulators to rapidly scan a laser beam to make 2D light patterns. It is intended to use the highly adaptable, dynamic optical ring lattice patterns for manipulating ultracold atoms. Nick's work, with associated movies, has recently been published and an image from the paper is on the cover of the November 14 copy of J Phys B.
Gerald Bonner was awarded joint 3rd prize for his work on ultrafast 2D-IR spectroscopy with supervisor Neil Hunt. Gerald was jointly funded by EPSRC and the Nuffield Foundation for his project looking at the solution dynamics and vibrational energy relaxation pathways of model compounds of the hydrogenase enzyme system as part of a larger collaborative project to develop new catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells.
(Photo by Graeme Fleming)
Where to get Vacation Bursary Funding
Summer bursaries for undergraduate students are available from a variety of sources and are an excellent way of attracting present undergraduates into PhD study. They also offer students an introduction to research student life and supervisors a chance to evaluate possible future students. For more information contact Gordon Robb or visit the various websites below:
EPSRC Vacation Bursary
IAESTE (for placement of overseas students)
Please note that the deadline for IAESTE applications was technically the 5th of December, though applications may be accepted up to the Christmas break, see Gordon for more information.
[AA, NTH, GRMR]
Small stuff
New Grants
Professor Erling Riis - EPSRC - Small-Scale Ring Traps for Atom Interferometry and Quantum Fluid Investigations. Start: 01/04/2009 End: 30/12/2012. Total: £689k
Professor Steve Barnett & Professor Gian Luca Oppo,
HIDEAS,
European Commission
Start: 01/10/2008 - 30/09/2011.
Total: £300k
Dr Carol Trager-Cowan, RAINBROW ITN (Marie Curie), European Commission. Start: 01/10/2008 - 30/12/2012. Total: £1,021k
Thesis Prize for Sarah Croke
Congratulations to Sarah Croke who has won the 2008 Thesis Prize awarded by the Quantum Electronics and Photonics Group of the Institute of Physics. Sarah was a Synergy Student, working with Steve Barnett in Strathclyde Physics and with Claire Gilson in the Mathematics Department at Glasgow. Sarah's thesis, entitled “Maximum Confidence Measurements”, describes how she both introduced the theoretical concept of these novel quantum measurements and also, in the group of Ian Walmsley at Oxford, performed them in the laboratory for the first time. Both her theoretical and experimental contributions were published in Physical Review Letters. Sarah left Strathclyde last year to take up a prestigious Research Fellowship at the Perimeter Institute in Canada.
[SB]
SUPA profiles
You probably know about this but SUPA would like to keep its database up to date and requests that you review your own entry. To do this, go to the My.SUPA site, log in, and click
on your name in the top right hand corner of My.SUPA to access your
profile. Alternatively, go straight to your profile from here. In your profile, you can change your primary (and secondary) theme although at present this has no effect as to which theme your are assigned to. If you would like to be assigned to a different theme, send an email to admin 
supa.ac.uk and a SUPA secretary will move you.
[KW]
