*Photo credit: Dr. John Cuffe, School of Physics, UCC

EAS Meeting 2025 came to a close last Friday, 27th June 2025. 

Congratulations to Dr. Jing Li and Dr. Anthony Kiely who are two of six researchers awarded funding under the Research Ireland Pathway Programme 2024 awards announced today by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD.

The School of Physics is delighted to welcome delegates to UCC this week for the European Astronomical Society (EAS) Meeting - the largest astronomical conference ever held in Ireland. 

Congratulations to Physics/Tyndall researchers Brian Corbett who won 'Supervisor of the Year' (a student-led nomination) and 'Sanathana Konugolu' who won 'Early Stage Researcher of the Year' at the recent UCC Research and Innovation Awards ceremony for 2024 that was held on 29 May. 

An award of €4,000 was granted to Dr. Bryan Kelleher Physics/Tyndall for work with Dr. Fatih Bilge Atar in the III-V group in Tyndall to design, fabricate and analyse optical frequency comb generation using quantum dot lasers in photonic integrated circuits.

Joe Carroll from the Quantum Matter research group, School of Physics, UCC along with collaborators have developed a powerful new tool for finding the next generation of materials needed for large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computing. 

Howard Grubb's legacy was honored when his original spherometer—used to test lenses and mirrors—was donated to UCC, linking the university to over a century of astronomical innovation.

The School of Physics would like to highlight the work of Postgraduate Student Lee Whitaker. Lee is a Masters research student investigating the spin evolution and feedback mechanisms of supermassive black holes in the early Universe.

“Being part of such a supportive and fun research group has made my time at UCC genuinely rewarding. The chance to work on exciting science alongside great people has been a real highlight.”

Research field trip to measure biogenically emitted gaseous iodine on the shoreline of Beara Peninsula, and at the aquaculture farm Pure Ocean Algae, who cultivate Palmaria Palmata.

Congratulations to Bryan Chan, a chemical physics student at University College Cork, awarded 2025 Naughton Fellowship Bryan will research the electrochemical sensing of drinking water at the University of Notre Dame.

Huge congratulations to student Bryan Chan, Anna Sheehan and Liam Waldron of University College Cork, for their project Quantum Perspectives on PFAS Pollution, which won 2nd prize at the Quantum Solutions for the Environment Challenge.

Leslie's cube is a scientific instrument, developed by John Leslie, used to demonstrate and study the emission and absorption of thermal radiation from different surfaces. 

Picture from left to right:
Emma Galloway (PG, School of Chemistry), Mixtli Campos-Pineda ( School of Physics), Andy Ruth (School of Physics), Amir Ben-Brik (PG, School of Chemistry/Physics), Shogo Saito (PG, School of Physics)

The School of Physics would like to highlight the work of Postgraduate Student Paul Wills, a PhD student in the Laser Spectroscopy Group led by Professor Andy Ruth. Paul is pictured on the left above while attening the RADICAL symposium which was held in January 2025. At this event, Paul obtained the Best Student Talk prize on his talk “A new cavity ring-down instrument for airborne monitoring of N₂O₅, NO₃, NO₂ and O₃ in the upper troposphere lower stratosphere”.

The Dip Circle is a device used to measure the angle between the horizon and the Earth’s magnetic field. 

The Symposium on Innovative Measurement Techniques for Trace Gases and Radicals which was held from 9-10 January 2025 in UCC was a big success! 

On 29th of November, we celebrated the 175th anniversary of the School of Physics with a special commemorative event.

The School of Physics would like to congratulate all our UG and PG students who were conferred in 2024. 

"While I'm only at the beginning of my PhD, I've found the opportunity to work on cutting-edge research very exciting and rewarding, and I can't wait to learn more."

• Conference will boost local economy by €2.8 million
• Cork’s biggest international conference to date
• Public astronomy events planned throughout the week of the conference

The Aepinus Condenser is an early type of variable capacitor. A capacitor is a device used to store electric charge. 

Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt has attended the international conference on quantum technology QTech 2024 from 10-12 September in Berlin (Germany) (https://premc.org/conferences/qtech-quantum-technology/).

During the conference, he also gave an oral presentation on the latest results of the SFI Frontiers for the Future Project "Shortcut-Enhanced Quantum Thermodynamics".

‘Exoplanet Formation’ Research group lead, Dr. Bertram Bitsch, recent publication.

Professor Bertram Bitsch, School of Physics, UCC participated and co-organised the "Challenge Accepted: Linking Planet Formation with Present-Day Atmospheres" workshop this week at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany.

The Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity in Quantum Optics group, School of Physics, UCC which is led by Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt who announced that the paper on "Twist-and-turn dynamics of spin squeezing in bosonic Josephson junctions: Enhanced shortcuts-to-adiabaticity approach" has just been published in Physical Review A 110, 022610 (2024) Link: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.022610.

This work has been done in collaboration with Vladimir M. Stojanovic (Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany). The paper emanated from research supported in part by a Grant from Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number 19/FFP/6951 (“Shortcut- Enhanced Quantum Thermodynamics”).

Dr. Michael Tremmel attended the 15th International LISA Symposium 2024 which was held in Dublin between the 7th and 12th July.

Researchers at University College Cork's Macroscopic Quantum Matter Group have used a Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) to write "UCC" with Caesium atoms on a CsV3Sb5 (CVS) sample.

Congratulations to all SEFS students MSc & PhD who were conferred today! 

Our Physics 4th year class of 2023/24 finished up today, Wednesday 29th May 2024. 

Title: "Quantum control of classical motion: piston dynamics in a Rabi-coupled Bose–Einstein condensate"

Professor Séamus Davis, Macroscopic Quantum Matter group, School of Physics, UCC along with colleagues from Oxford University published a paper on "Dichotomous dynamics of magnetic monopole fluids".

The Massive Black Holes in the First Billion Years Conference which was held in Kinsale last week from 29th April to 3rd May 2024 was a huge success! 

Title: High fidelity control of a many-body Tonks-Girardeau gas with an effective mean-field approach.

Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt with the Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity research group, School of Physics, UCC and collaborators had a paper on "High fidelity control of a many-body Tonks-Girardeau gas with an effective mean-field approach" published in Physical Review Research 6, 023114 (2024). 

Dr. Michael Tremmel and collaborators have issued a new paper published in the Open Journal of Astrophysics. 

Professor Paul Callanan of School of Physics, UCC was invited to take part in the Skellig Coast Dark Sky Festival which ran from 4th - 7th April 2024. 

Congratulations to Guido De Rosa on his conferring of his Masters in Science (from School of Physics / College of SEFS) in UCC today, 20th March 2024. 

Diets of the stars: differences in ‘twin’ stars may be due to ingesting planets, study finds

Niall Kennedy and Joe Carroll from the Macroscopic Quantum Matter group, School of Physics, UCC are currently at APS in Minneapolis this week attending the March Meeting 2024. 

Congratulations to Dr. Vincent Oliviero, Macroscopic Quantum Matter Group led by Professor Séamus Davis, School of Physics and the other UCC early stage researchers who were awarded funding in the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MCSA) Postdoctoral Fellowship awards 2023 towards their research projects.

Recorded in the National Inventory of Historic Scientific Instruments by Charles Mollan

Coil – Induction, Ruhmkorff (Ref; II 1968 UCP 195)

Last week, the School of Physics welcome 2 representatives from the European Astronomical Society, Professor Lex Kaper and Professor Marc Audard and 2 from Kuoni Congress, Ms. Laurie Bosson and Mr. Franck Grosset, as part of University College Cork's bid to host the European Astronomical Society's annual meeting in 2025.

On 9 February 2024 Dr Anton J. Walsh passed away very unexpectedly at the age of 43. He worked as a Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow and Principal Investigator in the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Process Analysis (CAPPA) at MTU, with well-established collaborations with research groups at UCC and the Tyndall National Institute.

*pictured above, NASA Astronaut Dr. Steve Swanson with Midleton CBS students and associates*

Last Monday, Cork welcomed former NASA Astronaut and International Space Station Commander, Dr. Steve Swanson.

On Wednesday February 7th, Professor Bertram Bitsch, Professor Paul Callanan, Dr. Mark Kennedy and Dr. Michael Tremmel travelled to Dunsink Observatory in Dublin to take part in a meeting with the European Space Agency's Director of Science, Professor Carole Mundell.

This visit to CERN was organised by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DfHERIS) and consisted of a delegation of stakeholders from across the Irish education and research landscape, including UCC Physics and Tyndall National Institute. 

Congratulations to Professor Alix McCollam and Dr. Emauele Pelucchi (Tyndall) on obtaining SFI Research Infrastructure Programme Awards. 

Dr. Jonathan Ward of the Macroscopic Quantum Matter group, School of Physics, UCC has a new publication accepted to Optics Express along with collaborators: Angzhen Li, Ke Tian, Jibo Yu, Shengfei She, Chaoqi Hou, Haitao Guo, Síle Nic Chormaic, Pengfei Wang.

Used as a White Light source for our optics demonstrations for many decades.

The School of Physics staff gathered on Friday, 8th December at the Courtyard on Sober Lane to celebrate another sucessful year! 

University College Cork (UCC) physicist Dr. Christopher Broderick has been awarded a prestigious fellowship to theoretically investigate new capabilities in photonic and electronic devices based on nanowires; filaments of semiconductor material one-thousandth the breadth of a human hair.

Dr. Mark Kennedy, School of Physics, UCC as a member of the ULTRACAM collaboration led by Professor Vik Dhillon (University of Sheffield) has recently been trained to use HiPERCAM on the Gran Telescopio Canarias. 

Dr. Pádraig Mac Cárthaigh had a very successful visit to Seville University this week where the plasma experimental device that was donated from Pádraig's group to the plasma physics group in Sevlle was put into operation with his assistance along with some of the enthusiastic PhD students in the research group of Dr. Manuel Garcia Muñoz and Dr. Eleonora Viezzer.

Dr. Bryan Kelleher, School of Physics, UCC attended IS-PALD 2023 this week, where he was invited to give a talk on Dynamics of integrated, bidirectionally coupled, optical comb sources. Find out more about this event here:
International Symposium on Physics and Applications of Laser Dynamics 2023 (IS-PALD 2023) - Sciencesconf.org

Dr. Bill Dubé of KiwiFil, New Zealand visited UCC for the month of November. Dr. Dubé, who received a PhD in physics from UCC in 2018, is an accomplished engineer.

Dr. Mark Kennedy, School of Physics, UCC visited the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics in Hannover, Germany from November 28th to December 1st.

Congratulations to Professor Frank Peters, School of Physics, UCC, Tyndall National Institute and the head of the Integrated Photonics Group at IPIC who will be awarded the SFI Industry Partnership Award 2023 today for IPIC's partnership with Rockley Photonics. 

Huge congratulations to our Physics Undergraduate Students and our PhD students who conferred this week on 14/11/2023 & 15/11/2023.

The PhD student, Shogo Saito, visited the esteemed National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado, as part of a collaboration with Prof Steve Brown, who is program leader in tropospheric chemistry and atmospheric remote sensing at NOAA.

The Irish Independent reports: Dr Mark Kennedy of University College Cork’s School of Physics has co-authored a paper published in Nature today outlining the findings from one of the most powerful explosions ever witnessed.

The Industrial Physics Class of 2023 had their conferring tonight in MTU School of Music as part of the Joint UCC-MTU Conferrings.

PhD students Paul Wills and Shogo Saito from Laser Spectroscopy group, School of Physics, UCC visited the Institute of Energy and Climate Research at ForschungsZentrum Jülich in Germany from 16^th – 20^th October.

WP5 - A: Long-term Continuous Biosensor for Real-Time In-vivo Monitoring of Biomolecules for Chronic-Pain Management. 

Professor Bitsch officially started as Professor of Astrophysics on 1st September 2023. Prior to this Bertram was an Independent Research Group Leader at the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg (Germany) funded by ERC. As well as teaching, Bertram will be leading research in the following areas: Astrophysics, Planet formation, hydrodynamical and N-body simulations.

Dr. Jing Li from 'Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity' research group, Physics, UCC was invited to the meeting of Shanghai University Alumni in Ireland Association which took place in the Council Room, UCC on 23rd September.

The School of Physics staff and students would like to mark Professor Stephen Fahy's retirement from the School in September 2023. 

• Applications open for 11 new academic positions at UCC and Tyndall National Institute.
• Closing date for applications is 12pm (Irish Standard Time) on Tuesday 5^th December 2023.

The School of Physics now have an EDI committee lead by students and staff. 

*Image of a galaxy merger, the precursor to massive black hole binaries/mergers.

Cork Astrophysics is now an official member group of the LISA Consortium.

The School of Physics had a total of 14 summer students who got involved with our research groups. Lets see what they worked on....

Huge congratulations to Professor Saibal Roy of Tyndall National Institute and School of Physics, along with the others as mentioned below, on this funded tripartite US-Ireland project awarded by NSF and due to begin in January 2024.

Full project details as follows: 

Macroscopic Quantum Matter Research Group, School of Physics, UCC have new material on a Superconductor breakthrough that could be significant for the future of quantum computing.  

The School of Physics, UCC would like to extend their congratulations to all our PhD Science Graduates who conferred on June 23rd in the Devere Hall, UCC.

The School of Physics would like to welcome Professor Alix McCollam to UCC as the SALI Professor of Quantum Technology in 2023.

A big congratulations to our 4th Years of 2022/2023.

(Image taken during a visit to ESO facilities in Paranal in Chile in April 2023)

We would like to congratulate and welcome Professor Paul Callanan as Head of School of Physics from 1st June 2023.

Huge congratulations to all the Physics students who won awards at the UCC 2022 STEM Awards ceremony held yesterday. 

Chemical Physics student set for a summer of research in China 

300 Physics Graduates were sent a Graduate Survey this week. 

ASTRONET, publishes today its Science Vision and Infrastructure Roadmap 2022-2035, a strategic plan for European Astronomy.

Dr Bryan Kelleher (School of Physics UCC / Tyndall) was invited to give a talk at Swiss Photonics 2023.

Professor Paul Callanan, School of Physics, UCC visited the European Southern Observatories telescopes in Chile last week.

"Refractory times for excitable dual-state quantum dot laser neurons"

M. Dillane, E. A. Viktorov, and B. Kelleher
Phys. Rev. E 107, 034216 – Published 31 March 2023
https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.034216

Physics students Chaia Carroll and Matylda Supernak both attended the Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics 2023 event hosted by the University of Liverpool from the 23rd to 26th March. 

The School of Physics, UCC take Erasmus students and today we are welcoming Emma Cassou from Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse, France) who has started her three-month Erasmus internship in the Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity research group lead by Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt. 

Dr Mark Kennedy from the School of Physics, UCC is part of an international team of researchers that has used a NASA telescope to further our understanding of one of the most exotic types of objects in the Universe: neutron stars.

The Entrance Scholarship Awards Ceremony was held on Thursday, 19 January in Devere Hall, UCC.

Congratulations to Jenny Davern, Physics and all the other UCC Undergraduate students who obtained a J&J WISTEM2D Scholarship. 

Check out the latest publication from Bryan Kelleher’s group: Inhibitory and excitatory integration with a quantum dot laser neuron, chosen as the Editor’s Pick in 1st January’s Optics Letters:

https://opg.optica.org/ol/fulltext.cfm?uri=ol-48-1-21&id=524353 

The following is an appreciation post for Dr. Lennon from retired friends and colleagues (Physics Department, UCC).

Dr Pádraig MacCárthaigh of School of Physics, UCC wrote an article for the Irish Examiner on the recent break-through in fusion energy research in California.

Congratulations to Chris Whitty from the Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity group, Physics Department UCC who sucessfully defended his PhD on 15th December 2022.

Title of PhD thesis: "Enhanced Shortcuts to Adiabaticity". 

A very big well done to all involved at St. Luke's School Montenotte for #ScienceWeek2022.

Three SFI funded PhD Postgraduate Researcher Positions available

University College Cork, Ireland
Department of Physics, School of Chemistry & Environmental Research Institute
College of Science, Engineering and Food Science

Jing, Chris and Manuel from the "Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity" research group have attended the Quantum Festival on 29th and 30th September in UCD (https://www.catsucd.com/events.html).

Emanated from research supported in part by a Grant from Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number 19/FFP/6951 (“Shortcut- Enhanced Quantum Thermodynamics”), our paper on “Quantum heat engine based on a spin-orbit- and Zeeman-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate” has just be published in Physical Review A (Jing Li, E. Ya Sherman, and A. Ruschhaupt, “Quantum heat engine based on a spin-orbit- and Zeeman-coupled Bose-Einstein condensate”, Phys. Rev. A 106 (2022) L030201).

Emanated from research supported in part by a Grant from Science Foundation Ireland under Grant number 19/FFP/6951 (“Shortcut- Enhanced Quantum Thermodynamics”), our paper on "Improved anharmonic trap expansion through enhanced shortcuts to adiabaticity“ has been published in the memorial issue of Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics on "Coherent Control: Photons, Atoms and Molecules", honouring the life and work of Bruce W. Shore (C. Whitty, A. Kiely and A. Ruschhaupt, "Improved anharmonic trap expansion through enhanced shortcuts to adiabaticity“, J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 55 (2022) 194003).

Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt has attended the CAMEL 17 workshop in Nessebar (Bulgaria) as an invited speaker (http://camel17.quantum-bg.org/). He was giving a talk on "Enhanced Shortcuts to Adiabatcity". This conference was the first event of this normally annual workshop after a 2 year Covid break (and therefore a lot of fun!!) 

Multi-colour optical light curves of the companion star to the millisecond pulsar PSR J2051-0827

Some of the Quantum Matter Research Group (Physics Dept. UCC) and collaborators have sucessfully published 2 high impact publications in 2022 as follows:  

Well done to Jonathan Ward of Physics Department, UCC along with International Collaborators (Ke Tian, Jibo Yu, Fuchuan Lei, Angzhen Li, Pengfei Wang, and Síle Nic Chormaic) on this published paper

"Blue band nonlinear optics and photodarkening in silica microdevices"

Congratulations to Physics graduate Thomas P Sheerin who won the ‘Best Publication of the Year - Undergraduate Author’ at the 2021 UCC Research Awards.

Huge congratulations to the class of 2021/2022, fourth year Physics students on the completion of their exams! 

An experienced candidate required for the role of Senior Technical Officer in the Department of Physics, University College Cork. 

The Physics Department would like to extend a huge congratulations to all nominees and all who won awards at the UCC STEM Awards 2022 held on Tuesday, 17th May 2022 @ 5.30pm in the Devere Hall, UCC.

Next Generation Visible and UV Light Emitting Devices

Ultra-sensitive cavity-enhanced trace gas detection for new atmospheric science and socio-economic impacts

We are pleased to announce an exciting new opportunity for a Full Professorship (Chair) of Quantum Technology in UCC’s Department of Physics, in association with our partner Tyndall National Institute (TNI).

Following a cancellation of the week last year due to covid restrictions, we are happy to say that the Physics Department transition year programme went ahead this year and it was as fun as ever! 

A new computing server, preliminary codename "Monster", is running now in the research group "Quantum Control via Shortcuts to Adiabaticity" led by Dr. Andreas Ruschhaupt in the Department of Physics.

Professor JC Séamus Davis, has been elected to the rank of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), considered among the most distinct honours within the global scientific community.

Quantum Physics group getting into the Halloween spirit.....

Looking to join our team? 

Huge congratulations to Dr. Mark Kennedy who is a recipient of the Government of Ireland, Irish Research Council Award.

Huge congratulations to one our Physics graduates Louise Shanahan who won a national title and trip to the Olympics after winning the 800m in the Echo Women in Sports.

Professor Séamus Davis, who leads a quantum research group in the Physics Department at University College Cork (UCC) and the University of Oxford, has made another major advance in the study of quantum materials.

Congratulations to Industrial Physics gradute Jarni Braal on the acheivement of this Irish Research Council award. 

The College of SEFS annual awards celebrate the achievements and success of our students and student-nominated outstanding SEFS staff members. The ceremony took place online this year, on Friday 14^th May via Teams.

The Department of Physics would like to say a huge congratulations to Physics students Chris Whitty and Niall Kennedy on their awards as follows: 

Monday, 19 April: Chris Whitty (PhD student in the research group of A. Ruschhaupt) has received the award for the publication of the year 2020 by the Department of Physics.

The Quercus Talented Students’ Programme is aimed at supporting and promoting excellence in academia, sport, creative and performing arts, active citizenship and innovation/entrepreneurship for both prospective undergraduate/level 8 students and students already registered in UCC. In addition to the scholarships in these areas also offered are three types of Quercus Academic Scholarship.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD, has today announced 71 grants valued at €53 million to support frontiers research across 12 Higher Education Institutions through Science Foundation Ireland.

This mighty Oak tree depicts the support services currently available to students at University College Cork and provides links to further information about each service.

Heartfelt congratulations to Professor Séamus Davis on yet another fantastic achievement.

Huge congratulations to our Physics students who won awards this year, especially Louise Shanahan who obtained STEM Award: SEFS Graduate of the year 2019. 

Professor Séamus Davis, who holds a joint position as Professor of Quantum Physics at University College Cork (UCC) and Professor of Physics at Oxford University has been awarded a Royal Society Research Professorship.

Retirement reception for Dr Pádraig Mac Cártaigh was held last night in UCC and went off with a hit with some traditional irish music to celebrate! 

Professor Richard Milner, 2020 Bonner Prize Winner, Former UCC Physics Graduate. 

Last week an international project which has been ongoing for 2 years has seen the UCC Campus recognised as part of a global network - The International Gravity Station Network (IGSN).

Huge congratulations to physics postgrad student Stephen Murphy who received the '2019 College of SEFS Student Nominated Teaching Demonstrator Award'!

UCC Astronomy Graduate, Mark Kennedy, current Newton International Fellow at The University of Manchester, was in Chile recently, by chance during the eclipse!!

A big congratulation to PhD graduates Dr. Daniel Carey, Dr. Ludovic Caro and Dr. Shane Duggan!

Superconductors are quantum materials that are perfect transmitters of electricity and electronic information.

One of the world’s leading scientists will give an inaugural public lecture on the emerging second quantum revolution next week (Thursday, 6 June) at University College Cork (UCC).

Congrats to Dr. Pádraig Mac Cárthaigh who gave his final lecture today. Nuclear and Particle Physics won't be the same without you!

Big congrats to our own Killian Long for winning the best publication of the year award!

Congratulations to our own Professor Frank Peters for his new appointment as leader of the Rockley Photonics R&D centre in Tyndall National Institute!

FameLab is the world's leading science communication competition. It is designed to inspire, motivate and develop scientists and engineers to actively engage with the public and last night it achieved exactly that. 

Monitoring stations have successfully been installed on UCC North Mall campus after calls from researchers for extra stringent monitoring the severity levels for air pollution within Cork City. The new facility is one of the most advanced and best equipped centres of its kind in the country.

Éamon Keating (second year Physics student) won the Inaugural Classical Mechanics Video of the Year Award for his video on the Coriolis Force.