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News and events
Open Day
October 2012
The School of Physical Sciences will be open for both prospective undergraduate and postgraduate students as part of the University Open Day on 6th October 2012. A number of current students and academic staff members will be available to answer course queries and we will be offering tours of our brand new £2.5million laboratories as well as some subject talks and demonstrations. The Open Day starts at 9am and finishes at 3pm. Visitors to SPS are encouraged to see staff in at our subject desks from 9am before heading to the Ingram Building from 10am to ensure that they do not miss any talks or demonstrations. For further details about the Open Day, including a programme, please see the main university website: http://www.kent.ac.uk/studying/visit/openday/index.html or call 01227 827272.
Using Shakespeare's Plays to Explore Modern Science
September 2012
The bioactive glasses at the heart of much of Professor Bob Newport's recent research within the Functional Materials Group continues to attract media interest; of recent note was the contact initiated by Carole Jahme (who writes for the Guardian and elsewhere, http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/carole-jahme). Carole has been funded by the Science and Technology Research Council (www.stfc.ac.uk) for a public engagement project entitled "ShakeSphere" (for those of you who tweet, follow @ShakeSphere1). This is based around the use of pop-up street theatre for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and beyond and represents a synthesis of science from Shakespeare's realm and frontier science of today. She'll use Shakespeare’s plays (and our knowledge of Elizabethan England) as a vehicle for the exploration of ‘hot topics’ in modern science - and has chosen to use the bone-regenerative materials associated with Bob's work as a central theme. One of the early consequences of joining forces in this endeavour was Bob's need to establish his own Twitter account: @Bob_MatPhys.
Students Explore Space School
August 2012
Students from all over the UK explored life beyond Earth at the University’s Space School weekend (4-5 August 2012). Nearly 40 students, aged 11-14, competed in space-based challenges such as building a landing system for a mobile space laboratory, investigating impact craters and designing and developing a space colony. In Saturday’s space colony task, student teams had to convince others that their colony was a safe and viable place to live. One team protected their biodome with an Aerogel coating, a material they had just learnt about from Dr Mark Price, the University’s new Space Science lecturer. The winning team, Galileo (Guy Proctor, Jamie Rice, Guy Uong and Sam Malkin) gave a presentation on their space colony on Mars, which included selling off areas to corporate companies. The main challenge on Sunday was to design and build a rocket that would launch a hen’s egg up to 200 metres and recover it safely. The winning team, Phoenix (George and Matthew Hawkins, Juliet James and Georgina Gatehouse) managed a perfect flight. Space School is run every year by the University’s School of Physical Sciences and caters for up to 45 students per weekend. Staff are a mix of academics and current and past students from the School.
New State-of-the-Art Laboratories shortlisted for a National Award
March 2012
The School of Physical Sciences newly refurbished Teaching Laboratories have been shortlisted in the Safe, Successful, Sustainable Laboratories Awards (S-Lab)