Message from the Dean

Welcome to the Faculty of Physical Sciences.

What are the fundamental constituents of matter?   How do silicon chips work?  How fast is human activity changing the climate?  How do we design better drugs? How do we produce energy cleanly?  How can we date the rocks around us?  How does a supernova explosion shake the space around us?  Questions like these lie at the heart of the Physical Sciences: Chemistry, Geographical & Earth Sciences and Physics & Astronomy.

Here in the Faculty of Physical Sciences we have vigorous and growing research programmes and partnerships. We can claim a world lead in some fields and international excellence in others. Indeed in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise we improved on the already high standards we had achieved in the previous 2001 assessment. In 2008 over 60% of our research was rated as 'world leading' or 'internationally excellent', with Physics and Astronomy ranked 7th in the United Kingdom.

 Moreover, our teaching, which benefits from the research-led environment in which it is conducted, is rated as 'excellent' in the National Student and other surveys.

Undergraduate Degree Programmes

• We offer a range of undergraduate degree programmes leading to Honours BSc or integrated Masters
• All programmes are fully accredited by the appropriate professional society
• It is possible for students in the early stages of a degree programme to try new subjects and possibly switch programme
• From September 2009 we are introducing a 'faster route' honours degree programme, for details of which follow the link to undregraduate degree programmes

Postgraduate Research Programmes

We offer mainly PhD, but also some Master of Science programmes, providing students with the opportunity to work with internationally renowned researchers on cutting edge problems. Current research is funded by Research Councils, the European Union, overseas organisations and industrial and commercial sponsors among others.

• Department of Physics & Astronomy: Research into the identification of gravitational waves; astrophysics; nanotechnology and materials physics; fundamental particles; nuclear physics; optical physics
• Department of Chemistry: Research into natural products, supramolecular chemistry, structure characterisation, modelling and synthesis (structural biology and biomaterials)
• Department of Geographical & Earth Sciences: Near surface earth sciences and its impact on physical geography, together with front line research into aspects of human geography

Postgraduate Taught Programmes

We offer a limited number of Master of Sciences and Master of Research degree programmes.  Details are given in the web pages of the individual departments Chemistry and Geographical and Earth Sciences

We hope that you enjoy browsing our web pages.


John Chapman, Dean