About the Department

We are one of the UK's leading Physics and Astronomy departments and part of a prestigious university. As such, we are committed both to high-quality undergraduate teaching and to first-class scientific research. We are a large, dynamic department, with a staff of 22 professors, 6 readers, 8 senior lecturers, 9 lecturers, about 50 post-doctoral researchers and fellows, 90 PhD postgraduate students.

We offer a wide variety of B.Sc./M.Phys. undergraduate and integrated degree courses in Physics, Physics & Astronomy, and Theoretical Physics, and each year we admit up to 140 students. In addition, Physics modules may be taken as a component of a B.Sc. or M.Sci. degree in Natural Sciences. In November 1998 the HEFCE Quality Assurance Agency awarded us the maximum possible rating of 24 for the standard of our teaching. The Times has ranked us as the top Physics department in the UK in four out of the last five years.

Our research concentrates on five key areas of Physics: Advanced Instrumentation, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Atomic and Molecular Physics, Condensed Matter Physics, and Elementary Particle Theory. Durham has the largest Particle Theory group in the UK. The department is very strong in Astronomy and Astrophysics, from the design of giant telescopes to computational cosmology; our research group on galaxy evolution is the largest in Europe and a major user of the Hubble Space Telescope and other space-based observatories.

In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise we retained our Grade 5A rating, i.e., our entire staff is engaged in research projects whose quality "equates to attainable levels of international excellence in some sub-areas of activity and to attainable levels of national excellence in virtually all others". In a recent survey for "impact factors" (citations per paper published) we were ranked top in Astrophysics and third overall of all UK physics departments. Durham is home to two major research institutes: the Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology and the Institute for Computational Cosmology. Staff of these institutes participate in our undergraduate teaching.