The whole Condensed Matter Physics research section (CMP) in Physics at Durham came together for an Away Day at Ushaw House for training and development activities to strengthen our research capabilities and support career progression.

We’re part of a project to build Europe’s largest solar telescope.

We’re part of an international team of astrophysicists who’ve simulated galaxy formation and large-scale cosmic structure with unprecedented detail to investigate how the Universe formed.

We’re part of an international team of cosmologists who’ve discovered that observations of gravitational waves might reveal the true nature of dark matter.

Physics students’ success from across the region has been celebrated at the recent School Physicist of the Year (SPotY) awards.

We’re part of an international team of cosmologists who’ve discovered that observations of gravitational waves might reveal the true nature of dark matter.

Our astronomers and cosmologists are involved in an international satellite mission to map the dark Universe.

The Universities of Durham and York have been awarded a Leverhulme Research Grant to work on fundamental properties of organic molecules. Prof Andy Monkman (Durham University Physics Department) and Dr Paul McGonigal (University of York Chemistry Department) have been working towards understanding how strain in a molecule affects its aromaticity which controls many key properties such as photophysics, reactivity, stability and electrical properties.

Our scientists and engineers are at the forefront of global innovation. Experts from our world-leading Physics Department are leading on two pioneering projects that will develop optical technologies for future satellites instrumentation and transform our observations of the Sun and high energy astrophysics.

Scientists have observed for the first time two million distant galaxies, quasars and stars that will help create the most detailed 3-D map of the Universe ever, which will further advance our understanding of the Universe and of our own galaxy, the Milky Way.

The annual Rochester Lecture for 2023 took place on Wednesday 31 May, and was this year delivered by Dr Richard Bowman, a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader specialising in microscopy and open hardware. The lecture was titled “Smart microscopy for everyone with open source hardware”, concerning both the OpenFlexure project and OpenFlexure Microscope.

Our physicists are part of an international team that has successfully used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion of the Universe.