The world as seen through a spinning window
The speed of light is a constant only in space. When light travels through glass, movement of the glass drags the light with it too. Spinning a window as fast as you can is predicted to rotate slightly the image of the world behind it.
Tweezers with a Twist
Richard Bowman, a graduate student in the Optics Group along with his supervisor, Professor Miles Padgett have contributed the cover story to the latest edition of Nature Photonics.
International Centre for Theoretical Physics
Sonja Franke-Arnold and Miles Padgett of the Optics Group give guest lectures at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP).
Entangled tangles of darkness
Writing in Physics Review Letters, Jacqui Romero of the Optics Group working with her collaborators in Strathclyde and Bristol has shown that knotted lines of darkness embedded optical fields are themselves non-locally entangled.
Dr Peter Sneddon named best teacher in College
At the inaugural PET awards organised by the students representative council, Dr Peter Sneddon was named the best teacher in the College of Science and Engineering
iPad tweezers
As covered by New Scientist, Wired and many other outlets, Richard Bowman of the Optics Groups has just published the use of an Apple iPad to control an optical tweezers.
Glasgow University Astrophysicist honoured by the Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) has announced the election of 45 new Fellows for 2011, to add to its 1500-strong Fellowship of experts in the sciences, arts, humanities, the professions, industry and commerce. Among those elected is Dr Martin Hendry from the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Prof. Hough elected Fellow of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation
Prof. Jim Hough was recently honoured for his "outstanding contributions in gravitational wave research" (to quote the official citation) by his election to become one of the inaugural fellows of the International Society of General Relativity and Gravitation.
The light keeps twisting
Professors Miles Padgett and Stephen Barnett (Strathclyde) have been jointly awarded a £2.5M Programme grant under one of the UK's most prestigious award schemes.
Glasgow Solar Physicist is named RAS 2011 Harold Jeffreys Lecturer
(January 2011) Dr Lyndsay Fletcher, a Reader in Solar Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy, has been named by the Royal Astronomical Society as the 2011 Harold Jeffreys Lecturer