School of Physics & Astronomy
Welcome to the School of Physics and Astronomy
We are a highly prestigious Physics department with 135 year history of nationally and internationally leading research and teaching. Over 60 academic and academic related staff, 25 support and technical staff and 70 research students, combine with 500 undergraduates to form a lively community, part of an established research-focused university.
Protein tug-of-war
Protein molecules curl up like tangled balls of string; to find out how they work, you have to unfold them. If they were balls of string, you would pull on each end - and that's exactly what Dr Lorna Dougan and her colleagues are doing here at Leeds, using atomic force microscopes. It's like a tug-of-war, but on a tiny scale: protein molecules need just a few hundred piconewtons to stretch them out to a few tens to hundreds of nanometres long.
Latest News
Complete University Guide Rates Leeds Physics 7th Best
The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds is now ranked 7th Best in the UK according to the Complete University Guide
Stoner Colloquium
The next Stoner Colloquium by Professor Markus Aspelmeyer from the University of Vienna, entitled "Schroedinger’s Mirrors: Confronting Quantum Physics with Gravity?" will take place on Tuesday, 3rd April at 5.15 pm in Conference Auditorium 2.
Paid Research Placements for our Undergraduates
The School of Physics & Astronomy sponsors its talented, enthusiastic students, to spend the summer working in research groups within the School. Applications for 2012 have now closed.
Older News...
Life as an international student at the University of Leeds never needs to be difficult - the International Students Office can help you out with a lot of things
Lina Jonsson, MPhys Physics