Physics and Astronomy February 2021 Digest

Two months in to 2021, and our Leicester Physics community remains distributed far and wide across the UK and beyond. Nevertheless, spring and a sense of optimism are in the air, as we head into the final weeks of the spring term.

Competition Time! AstRoSoc recently announced an opportunity for budding astrophotographers to have their images featured in a 2021/22 academic calendar – so take advantage of the dark March nights to turn your lenses to the skies. This Wednesday, Mars and the Pleiades will experience their closest conjunction until 2038 – use Orion’s Belt to star-hop to Taurus, and think of the Perseverance Rover now exploring Jezero Crater after its nerve-shredding landing on February 18th. And watch this space for an exciting announcement of a themed baking competition jointly hosted by PhySoc and AstroSoc throughout April.

Our Community: We have been celebrating LGBTQ+ history month with a series of excellent newsletters prepared by the PGR reps, all archived on our blog. On February 11th the School joined the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrations, using Twitter (@PhysicsUoL) to showcase some of the valuable and innovative research currently being led by women around our School. We’d like to do the same for International Women’s Day on March 8th, so we would love to hear your ideas of scientists, teachers, and mentors who have inspired you – please think outside of the box, and get in touch directly with Sarah Casewell (slc25) before Friday this week (or tweet and copy in @PhysicsUoL). Finally, we have celebrated the selection of our first ten Galactic Unite scholars, providing support and Virgin Galactic mentorship to some of our undergraduates.

Get Involved: Don’t forget that our regular research seminars, especially in the Astrophysics and Planetary Science groups, are open to everyone – these bring in scientists from all over the world to discuss cutting-edge research. The National Space Centre continues to run its series of Friday-night Q&A sessions, with Director of the National Space Academy, Anu Ojha, featured just last week. Finally, don’t forget that you can still enter the 3-minute thesis competition if you are a graduate student or postdoc. 

Please do consider sending us posts and stories to share with the community, and we hope that you enjoy these first few days of spring.