Last year I completed my PhD on planetary giant impacts in the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, and am happily continuing to work on similar things. Our solar system used to be a much more violent place, with early planets crashing into each other to create the worlds we see today. Since we can’t…
Hi There! I am Giorgio and I am an astrophysicist, and guess what? Today I’m here to speak about… babies. Yes, you heard it right, and it’s not a cool way to name galaxies or stars but I am referring to actual babies! More precisely a few hours old babies. Curious, about why? Well, I am here to explain. Trying…
In my PhD, I research quasars, which consist of a supermassive black hole at the centre of galaxies surrounded by a disc of matter that is so bright it outshines the entire galaxy. Most quasars are very blue, but there is an important subset that are much redder which we call “red quasars”. These red quasars could be an…
We’re celebrating Durham University’s strengths in astronomy and cosmology research. Here PhD Researcher Vicky Fawcett, in our Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, talks about her research on quasars, a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy surrounded by a disc of matter that’s so bright it outshines the entire…
Like many of you, I have watched a lot of films and TV shows that depict university life. Many of them being American, such as Community or Gilmore Girls. I knew a lot of these shows would not be realistic in their portrayal of American colleges, let alone UK universities. Yet I still found myself building my expectations about…
So you want to know more about studying Physics at Durham? Well, what I can tell you for sure is that you will be in for an adventure of a lifetime! Let me start by introducing myself, I’m Zsofi, I’m Hungarian and Swiss and I graduated from Durham in 2020 with a Master’s degree in Physics, specializing in…
Throughout my childhood and school life, studying at university was at the forefront of my mind. Having come from a working-class family and the first generation to attend university, I was undoubtedly very excited but also daunted when I received my Durham offer in late 2019. The prospect of meeting not only academically gifted…
Before coming to Durham, I was completely clueless about the student jargon, I found myself hearing all of these words such as ‘JCR Levy,’ ‘Matriculation’ and ‘Billy Bee’ and getting slightly confused. Here is my guide to the Durham Jargon – so you don’t have to be as confused as I was!
Billy B…
Former Durham PhD student Chichuan Jin talks about his time at the University and his research work. Jin, who is now a researcher in the National Astronomical Observatories of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a core member of the Einstein Probe mission which will look for black holes hidden in the centre of galaxies.
He…
