MPS Weekly Update
1 October 2015
Sussex Universe lecture series
Thursday 1 October 7pm-8pm
Chichester I lecture theatre
Dr Iacopo Vivarelli
The LHC after the Higgs boson
discovery
Open to all – no booking
required. Followed by wine and
nibbles.
Your school needs
YOU
to be a student rep
The Student Rep Scheme is an important means of promoting the student
voice at Sussex. It allows students a formal role in improving and assuring the
quality of their courses, as well as representing students’ views on the wider
student experience. MPS takes an active role in supporting reps in the school
through the Director of Student Experience, Prof Barry Garraway and,
through professional service support, Dorothy Lamb.
Details of this, and the other talks
over the coming months, can be
viewed at
www.feelthegraphicx.org/
initiatives/sussexuniverse
Institute of Physics talks
Tuesday 6 October 7pm-8pm
Chichester I lecture theatre
Dr Andrew Steele
Superconductivity: from flying
trains to bottled stars
The Student Rep Scheme reports to the University Teaching & Learning
Committee, which has oversight of the direction of the Scheme.
All welcome – free – no need to
book – post-talk refreshments
Student Reps are undergraduate and postgraduate students elected by
Sussex students to represent the views and interests of students in their
subject, department or school cohort. They are elected to post and to
membership of University committees by their peers. They also have
positions on a number of school/departmental committees and meetings and
take part in regular events that review and assure the quality of courses.
Details of this, and the other talks
over the coming months, can be
viewed at www.sussex.ac.uk/
physics/outreach/publicevents
Contributions and suggestions made by our reps at the termly School Student
Experience Group – to which all student reps are invited, together with a
number of academic and admin staff – have resulted in great improvements
in the MPS environment for all of its students over recent years.
Nominations are now closed and voting opens at 9am on Monday 5
October until 5pm on Friday 9 October (with the results scheduled to be
available 5pm-7pm on Friday 9 October).
Please encourage your u/g and p/g students to
vote for our nominees so that MPS is represented
at all levels (u/g & p/g) and through all years.
The students’ voice matters
www.sussexstudent.com/elections/
A BIG thank you to all those who
baked for, and donated to,
Macmillan with our recent cake
sale. The total raised, which
surpassed last year’s, was a
brilliant £242.
Physics & Astronomy news
Dr José Verdu Galiana, Senior
Lecturer in Atomic, Molecular and
Optical Physics, is one of just five
early-career researchers across the
UK to be awarded a fellowship to lead
the country’s quantum tech quest.
The UK’s ability to lead the world in quantum science
and technologies has been boosted by the
announcement of a £12 million investment in key
researchers - among them José.
Quantum technologies use the properties of quantum
physics to gain a functionality or performance which is
otherwise unattainable. They promise future dramatic
changes in the technological capabilities in several
key areas, including secure communications,
metrology, sensor technologies, simulation and
computation.
The aim of José’s Quantum Technologies Fellowship
is to develop a functional detector of single microwave
photons. Such a detector is essential for implementing
practical applications in quantum communications and
quantum computation with microwaves. José’s team
will employ trapped electrons as ultra-sensitive
sensors of microwave radiation.
Mathematics news
Dr Istvan Kiss’s article Dynamic
Control of Modern, Network-Based
Epidemic Models is featured in Siam
(Society for Industrial & Applied
Mathematics)
epubs.siam.org/journal/sjaday
Organised by Dr Roger Fenn, Prof
James Hirschfeld and Dr Ali Taheri, a
one-day conference Breaking
Boundaries between Analysis,
Geometry and Topology was held in
the Department of Mathematics at the
beginning of this week.
www.sussex.ac.uk/maths/research/
breakingboundaries2
Physics & Astronomy news cont’d
Dr John Gribbin will be participating
in a Fred Hoyle memorial meeting at
the Royal Astronomical Society on
9 October http://bit.ly/1G0ex1y
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/index?
id=32211
Information for Academics
The fifth round of the Research Development Fund has
been launched.
The University has agreed new improvements to the
system previously known as Mitigating Evidence
Claims (MEC), including a change of name to
‘Exceptional Circumstances’.
This is the system which enables students to make a
claim in relation to their performance in assessment,
due to unforeseen, temporary and sudden
circumstances. It covers scenarios such as sudden
illness, bereavement and an exacerbation of a
long-term condition (for a student with a registered
disability) that affects students’ performance in
assessments.
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/?
id=32255
The scheme is intentionally flexible, recognising that
different disciplines have different requirements for
research development.
The scheme will, therefore, fund activities potentially
ranging from the gathering of data to support a specific
funding proposal to the hosting of visiting academics,
practitioners, policymakers and industrial partners to
develop collaborative projects with Sussex
researchers.
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/
newsandevents/?id=32174
Information for Academics continued
Thursday 1 October 1pm-2pm &
Thursday 8 October 1pm-2pm
Library Training & Viewing room
Getting started with using library resources
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=32005
Thursday 1 October 6pm-7pm
Falmer House, Meeting Room 1
Polymath Society
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=32268
Tuesday 6 October 4.30pm+
Meeting House
Launch event for the two Epigeum online training
packages in which Sussex has recently invested
The Supervising Doctoral Studies and Researcher
Integrity modules will soon be available to all Sussex
researchers (both staff and students) via Study Direct,
and they contain information, policy, worked examples
and the institutional and national context of research
ethics and doctoral supervision. The Supervising
Doctoral Studies modules will be complemented by a
variety of workshops and seminar sessions for
supervisors which will run throughout the year.
At this event, there will be an opportunity to watch
demonstrations of the system, while enjoying light
refreshments. PVC Michael Davies will also be in
attendance and give a short presentation at the
beginning of the session.
Wednesday 7 October 1pm-3pm
Library Training Room, ground floor
Supporting students’ learning: library, study skills
and career development
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=31109
Wednesday 7 October 3pm-5pm
Terrace Room, Conference Centre, Bramber House
Doctoral Welcome Event – for new doctoral
researchers
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=31712
Thursday 8 October 10am-1pm
Jubilee G30
Effective networking for career success
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/newsandevents/
eventscalendar?id=31922
Thursday 8 October
2.30pm-4pm
Library Training Room,
ground floor
Literature searching using
Web of Knowledge and
Scopus
www.sussex.ac.uk/staff/
newsandevents/
Departmental seminars coming up
Astronomy
MASS
www.maths.sussex.ac.uk/
seminar
Thursday 8 October 3pm in Pev 3 5C11
Dr Johannes Zimmer (Bath)
TBA
www.sussex.ac.uk/astronomy/
newsandevents/calendar
Friday 2 October 4.30pm-5.30pm Arts C133
Scott Kay (Manchester)
TBA
EPP
https://epp.phys.sussex.ac.uk/epp/
Seminars_2014_15
Thursday 1 October 1om Pev 3 5C11
Dr Thomas Latham (Warwick)
Excited D and Ds spectroscopy measured in
Dalitz plot analyses of B decays
LOCAL EVENTS
As part of Shoreham WordFest 2015
Saturday 3 October 7.30pm
Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham
An evening of Gilbert & Sullivan (tickets £15)
ropetacklecentre.co.uk/events/an-evening-of-gilbert-sullivan/
Sunday 4 October doors open at 2.30pm for 3pm
Komedia Studio Bar
Our Brighton Hippodrome Benefit: the Golden Age of Theatre (£10/£8)
www.komedia.co.uk/brighton/event/our-brighton-hippodrome-benefit-the-goldenyears-of-the-theatre/
Brighton Comedy Festival
9-24 October
www.brightoncomedyfestival.com/
City Reads 2015 10 October-1 November collectedworks.co.uk/
An annual citywide reading festival which aims to spread a love of books and
ideas to the widest possible audience throughout Brighton & Hove. The concept
is simple: selecting one book by one author for the whole community to read,
discuss, debate and creatively engage with in a series of special events,
workshops and performances.
Bright10 (the first-ever 10 mile race on the streets of Brighton & Hove)
18 October
To enter now, go to www.bright10.co.uk/
Brighton Early Music Festival
23 October-8 November
Tickets available now from www.bremf.org.uk/
SMALL AD
There is a small two-bedroomed house in Lewes
(Western Road) which will be available to let (furnished)
from early November until March/April next year.
Would suit a visiting academic: on a direct bus route to
the university (the bus stop is outside the front
door!). Close to a good pub (Black Horse) which does
decent food. £1100 pcm, excluding bills.
If anyone is interested, please contact
[email protected].
If you have any items for inclusion in the next MPS
weekly update, please contact Dorothy Lamb
E [email protected] by 12 noon at the
latest on Wednesday before Thursday
publication.
Today is Older People’s Day
olderpeoplesday.co.uk/