Welcome to the Physics Community!

During these unprecedented times, the School of Physics and Astronomy are exploring new ways to bring our staff and students together as a family.

The launch of the 2020-21 academic year will see great changes to the manner in which we interact as a community. The buzz of the lecture theatres, the chatter of the coffee rooms, and the moments of shared experience that define university life will be turned on their heads this year. Over the past six months, students and staff have worked tirelessly to adapt to these new circumstances, to foster and maintain the sense of family within the School of Physics and Astronomy. This has never been more important, particularly for our new starters and those working from home in isolation.

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Physics Community programme, which will bring together several existing activities to ensure that everyone feels a strong connection to the School. This starts from this revamped Physics and Astronomy Blog (see our old Blog here), which will serve as a centralised hub for news, events, and showcasing the work of our School. In particular, we will:

• Bring together the work of the Physics News Team, and encourage contributions from all members and alumni of the School.
• Showcase the activities of our department, through video lectures, podcasts, and blog posts.
• Explore new ways of promoting equality, diversity, and inclusiveness within our School and with the wider community.
• Advertise the incredible work of our student societies (PhysSoc and AstroSoc) and ensure that they are accessible to all.
• Organise community-wide events, activities, and social gatherings catered for the virtual world.
• Circulate a regular digest via social media and email.

This new Community Programme has emerged from our first Summer Engagement Programme, which ran between July and September 2020. This consisted of a regular series of emails to our undergraduates during the months of Lockdown, including video lectures, podcasts, discussion forums, blogs, activities and data challenges, and showcased the best of the School of Physics and Astronomy. We want to maintain that momentum if we can, though we recognise that it can never replace the value of direct social interactions.

We welcome your contributions and feedback at all stages – our new Physics Community email address will soon be live, and we welcome submissions of posts: these can be anything, from simply linking to pre-existing content on the web (with a brief explanation), to adverts for forthcoming events, to news items or blogs on your activities and experiences within the School.

We hope that you’ll work with us to help maintain the vibrant, diverse, and exciting community of Leicester’s School of Physics and Astronomy. Remember, you can also follow us on Twitter (@PhysicsUoL) and find us on Facebook.