Research and innovation

School celebrates success at REF 2021

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Research team looking at radio astronomy equipment in a lab
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Plastic alternatives

Professor Mike Ries is helping one of the world’s largest producers of these films reduce its environmental footprint

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Fruit in plastic packaging on supermarket shelf
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Henry Royce Institute

We're a partner of Henry Royce, the UK’s national centre for research and innovation of advanced materials

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Bragg Centre for Materials Research
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Research and innovation

Our research activity covers the following main areas: Star and planetary system formation; Spintronics in condensed matter; Experimental biophysics and bio-nanoscience; Dynamics of polymers and complex fluids; and Quantum information theory and its applications. We are applying our collective expertise to the development of sustainable energy harvesting and storage, and towards translation into healthcare and medicine.

Our research, with wider economic impact, includes the development of functionalised nano-materials for use in photo-voltaics and in the catalysis of methanol oxidation, the micro-bubble delivery of medication to cancerous tissue, and quantum sensing applications for medical imaging.

We have strong links with the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, the Bragg Centre for Materials Research, and the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures.

99%

"world-leading" or "internationally excellent"

Submitted research - REF 2021

Over 75

academic and research staff

working with over 65 PhD researchers to deliver high-impact research

100%

"world-leading" or "internationally excellent"

Submitted impact case studies - REF 2021

Our research

Our research covers a variety of astrophysics topics, ranging from nearby objects in the solar system to the far reaches of the Universe.

More on Astrophysics

We are a centre of excellence for spintronics, a new technology that utilises a quantum property of the electron known as spin.

More on Condensed Matter

We focus on the formation, structure, dynamics and interactions of matter at the molecular and nanoscale.

More on Molecular and Nanoscale Physics

We study liquid and solid polymeric phases, macromolecular architecture and dynamics, statistical physics of complex fluids, and biophysics.

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We are involved in solving some of the challenges of modern theoretical physics, ranging from quantum information to biophysics.

More on Theoretical Physics

We are undertaking research to gain an understanding of the ways students learn physics and develop as physicists in the 21st Century.

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