There are two emeritus or honorary professors. The total complement of the Department, including post-doctoral research fellows and research students, is about 80. The Department is currently headed by Prof. Nick Braithwaite.
Research
There is an internationally competitive research programme in the Department, located in several research groups.
The Astronomy Research Group is a constituent of the University’s recently inaugurated Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research (CEPSAR). Activities of the Astronomy Research Group currently focus on astrochemistry, the astrophysics of binary stars, star formation, and planetary physics. The Group is a member of the UK SALT Consortium, which owns a 5% share in the 10m Southern African Large Telescope. We are also a partner in the WASP consortium which operates two robotic sky-patrol camera systems for photometric monitoring of the whole sky. We have membership on the science teams for the 2009 ESA GENIE (Ground Based Nulling Interferometer Experiment) and the 2015 DARWIN missions, and are members of the Guaranteed Time Consortia of the Japanese Akari infrared survey mission and the 2009 HERSCHEL SPIRE instrument. We also co-ordinate an EU Network in Astrobiology.
In the Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics Research Group and the Plasma Science and Engineering Physics Research Group have formed a new interdepartmental grouping to bring together the molecular, optical and plasma studies in the Department of Physics and Astronomy with teams whose expertise is in Chemistry, Materials Engineering and Applied Mathematics. Together these research groups form the University’s emerging Centre for Atomic and Molecular Engineering (AME). The aim of AME is to bring people together from different disciplines, with common interests and common goals, to manipulate and probe matter at the atomic and molecular level. The common theme that underlies the grouping concerns interactions with matter at the molecular scale ranging from studies of damage to single bio-molecules, induced by energetic particle impact, to the fabrication of micro-electromechanical systems by means of ‘reactive ion etching’.
Research
Staff in the Physics & Astronomy Department make their main contribution to the Science curriculum through courses in Physics (including some maths courses) and in the Astronomy & Planetary Science area. Staff also contribute to Environmental Sciences courses, the Science Short Course Programme, and to the Science Masters’ degree (principally through medical physics courses).
The Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (piCETL) is one of the Open University’s four CETLs. It was established under the terms of the HEFCE CETL initiative and will operate between 1st April 2005 and 31st March 2010. The key aim of the Centre is to provide a national and international nexus for the creation, implementation, evaluation, scholarly documentation and dissemination of important new ideas in the teaching and learning of physics and astronomy. To achieve this, the Centre is bringing together outstanding teachers from three physics departments (the Open University and our partners at the Universities of Leicester and Reading) that already have international reputations for innovation in teaching and established records of success in HEFCE-funded teaching and learning projects.
