Physical and Chemical Sciences research

• Sally Gaw - Aspects of environmental chemistry, including fate of contaminants in the environment and human exposure to contaminants.
• Brett Robinson - Biowaste research, trace elements in the environment, soil chemistry, environmental remediation, Rhizosphere research, Soil-plant interactions.
• Ian Shaw - Toxicology and environmental chemistry, including mechanisms of toxicity, particularly the impact of environmental contaminants on humans.

• Currently astronomy is undergoing huge expansion as we can now view the Universe at all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Satellites can get above the atmosphere to detect gamma rays and on the ground huge telescope arrays many kilometres across make exciting discoveries with radio waves. Electronic detectors, known as CCDs have replaced photography for optical observations in astronomy, and this data has led to new advances in our knowledge of the Universe.
• Find out more about what we do and how you can get involved.

Group Pages

Planetary Group

• Antony Fairbanks - Organic synthesis, carbohydrate chemistry,
• Timothy Allison - Native mass spectrometry, membrane proteins, enzymes, structural biology
• Jodie Johnston -

The condensed matter group is interested in the properties of materials from millimetre size right down to the scale where quantum behaviour of the atoms becomes important. At these small dimensions, on the scale of nanometres, materials take on new physical properties and thus present the opportunity for new science and applications. This is the field of Nanotechnology.

Staff

• Nanotechnology research
  • Simon Brown
• Find out more about Semi Conductor Physics
  • Roger Reeves
• Find out more about Spectroscopy of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles and materials for quantum information
  • Mike Reid
  • Jon Paul Wells

The field of Physics encompasses the study of matter and energy, ranging from subatomic particles to the vast scale of the universe.

Cosmology investigates the large-scale properties of the universe, including its origin, evolution, and eventual fate.

Researchers at UC explore topics such as the expansion of the universe, dark matter, dark energy, and the cosmic microwave background radiation.

Astroparticle physics lies at the intersection of astronomy and particle physics.It involves using the universe as a laboratory to study high-energy phenomena.UC’s Professor Jenni Adams leads research in this area. Her group is part of the IceCube collaboration, which operates the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole.

• Professor David Wiltshire - General relativity and gravitation; Cosmology; Black holes and Quantum gravity
• Professor Jenni Adams - Cosmology and astroparticle physics; High energy neutrino detection; Inflationary phase transition and related phenomena and Large scale structure formation in the Universe 
• IceCube - South Pole Neutrino Detector website
• Chris Gordon - Galactic Center; cosmic rays; dark matter; galaxy clusters; primordial power spectrum; cosmic microwave background; inflation and non-gaussianity.

Group Pages

Gravity and Cosmology Group

Astroparticle Physics Group

Atmospheric physics is the study of the fundamental processes governing the behaviour of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists perform experiments, make observations and use computational models to understand atmospheric processes, climate variability and weather patterns. Atmospheric physics is key in addressing environmental challenges such as climate change, ozone depletion, air quality and extreme weather events.

Find out more about what we do and how you can get involved.

• Adrian McDonald 
• Laura Revell
• David Frame

Group Pages

Atmospheric Physics Group

• Owen Curnow - Ionic liquids based on amino-stabilised cyclopropenium cations: synthesis, properties and applications.
• Alison Downard- Surfacechemistry, electrochemistry and nanotechnology.
• Vladimir Golovko - Inorganic and materials chemistry for applications in catalysis and nanotechnology, including bio-nanotechnology.

• Deborah Crittenden - Theoretical and computational chemistry.
• Sarah Masters Gas-phase molecular structure.
• Greg Russell- Modelling of all aspects of free-radical polymerization kinetics; synthesis of novel emulsion polymers.

• Antony Fairbanks- Synthetic organic chemistry, carbohydrate chemistry, and applications of carbohydrates in biology and medicine (glycobiology). Research techniques primarily involve organic synthesis, together with biocatalysis and other aspects of chemical biology.
• Christopher Fitchett– synthesis of new and interesting organic molecules, particularly focusing on colossal aromatic molecules.
• Richard Hartshorn - Aspects of bio-inorganic chemistry, including the reactivity of chelated ligands, ligand construction on metal ions and the synthesis of metal ion based hypoxic cell selective anti-cancer agents.
• Paul Kruger - Inorganic supramolecular chemistry. Interests are centred in supramolecular chemistry, and involve the design, synthesis and characterization of metal complexes incorporating organic and coordination chemistries.

The School has links with the following projects and research groups:

MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology

IceCube South Pole Neutrino Observatory

CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research

Australian Synchrotron

Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies

Gravity and Cosmology Research Group

Astroparticle Physics Group

Atmospheric Physics Group

Planetary Group

Curnow Research Group

Fairbanks' Research Group

Masters Research Group

Downard Electrochemistry and Surface Chemistry Research Group

Golovko Research Group

Allison Research Group