Particle physics

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Particle physics contacts and speakers

This is a list of contacts for particle physics research groups who can help schools visit university research scientists and departments, many of which work on projects connected to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

They may also be able to help enrich an activity connected with a planned school visit to CERN or upon return.

Contacts for local particle physics research

Birmingham – Christina Lazzaeroni

Bristol – Helen Heath

Brunel – Paul Kyberd

Cambridge – Steve Wotton

Daresbury – Wendy Cotterill

Durham – Lorraine Coghill

Edinburgh – Gill Maddy

Glasgow (experimental) – Valerie Flood

Glasgow (theoretical) – David Miller

Imperial College London –  Jordan Nash

Kings College London

Lancaster – Harald Fox

Liverpool – Particle Physics

Manchester – Darren Price

Nottingham – Anastasios Avgoustidis

Oxford – Brian Foster

Plymouth – Craig McNeile

Queen Mary University of London – Seth Zenz

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory – Sophy Palmer

Royal Holloway, University of London – Veronique Boisvert

Sheffield – Susan Cartwright

Southampton – Nick Evans

Sussex – Darren Baskill

Swansea – Graham Shore

University College London – Mario Campanelli

Warwick – Gary Barker

Speakers and contacts by region

All these particle physicists are happy to give talks to schools or other groups on the topics listed. If you would like to invite them to give a talk, please contact them directly.

Scotland

Richard Kenway – Edinburgh:

  • ‘Computer simulation of elementary particles’

Victoria Martin – Edinburgh:

  • ‘Searching for that God (damn) particle: the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider.’

Alan Walker – Edinburgh:

  • Particle Physics for Scottish Schools (PP4SS) exhibition

Rebecca Crawford – Science Connects Glasgow:

  • can arrange talks in Scotland

Aidan Robson – Glasgow

North West England

Roger Jones – Lancaster:

  • ‘New physics at the LHC’
  • ‘What’s the matter with antimatter?’
  • ‘What can particle physics do for us?’

Helen O’Keeffe- Lancaster:

  • ‘Why are neutrinos so interesting?’
  • ‘Secrets from the Sun.’

Laura Kormos – Lancaster:

  • ‘Neutrinos are not ice-cream! And other quantum nursery rhymes.’

Harald Fox  – Lancaster:

  • talks on Higgs boson, the LHC and ATLAS, and antimatter

Tim Greenshaw – Liverpool

Hywel Owen – Manchester:

  • ‘From splitting the atom to cures for cancer: a tour through the world of particle accelerators.’

Fred Loebinger –  Manchester:

  • ‘Quarks and gluons – the story of elemental particle physics.’

Chris Parkes – Manchester:

  • ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it: the start of the LHC.’
  • ‘Angels and Demons: the story of antimatter.’

Darren Price – Manchester:

  • LHC physics, dark matter and the Higgs boson
  • ‘Exploring the unknown with the Large Hadron Collider’
  • ‘Shedding light on dark matter.’

North East England

Sean Paling – Boulby:

  • talks about astroparticle physics, the search for dark matter and deep underground science

Aidin Masouminia – Durham:

  • general particle physics talks, suitable for sixth formers

Djuna Croon – Durham:

  • talks about cosmology, black holes, gravitational waves and extra dimensions, suitable for sixth formers and GCSE students

Francesca Chadha-Day – Durham

  • for sixth formers:
    • dark matter: understanding the gravity of the situation
    • dark matter and creativity (a talk discussing dark matter physics as well as the role of creativity in physics)
    • misadventures on the path to big physics discoveries (a talk about mistakes in physics)

Frank Krauss – Durham:

  • general particle physics talks, suitable for age 14 upwards
  • talks about the Higgs boson and simulations in particle physics for sixth formers and beyond
  • modelling of epidemiology, suitable for age 12 upwards

Nigel Glover – Durham:

  • ‘The hunt for the Higgs’, suitable for sixth formers

Yorkshire

Rob Edgecock –  Huddersfield:

  • ‘Applications of particle accelerators.’

Susan Cartwright – Sheffield:

  • ‘A walk through the universe’ (Key Stage 1 and 2)
  • ‘Dark matter: the stuff of the universe’
  • ‘Neutrinos and the universe’
  • ‘The ideas of particle physics’
  • ‘Quantum physics’
  • ‘QCosmology and the LHC’
  • ‘The Higgs boson’

Ed Daw – Sheffield

Kristin Lohwasser – Sheffield:

  • a virtual tour through CERN and the ATLAS experiment

Davide Costanzo – Sheffield

Sean Paling – Sheffield

Dan Tovey – Sheffield

Vitaly Kudryavtsev – Sheffield:

  • ‘Cosmic rays’, suitable for ages 15 and above
  • ‘Dark matter in the universe’, suitable for ages 15 and above

Darren Price – Manchester:

  • LHC physics, dark matter and the Higgs boson
  • exploring the unknown with the LHC
  • shedding light on dark matter

Midlands and East Anglia

Richard Batley – Cambridge

Andy Parker – Cambridge

Ed Copeland – Nottingham:

  • ‘From Quarks to galaxies’
  • ‘The Large Hadron Collider – why should we care?’
  • ‘Our universe.’

Anne Green – Nottingham:

  • ‘Searching for dark matter.’

Anastasios Avgoustidis – Nottingham

Antonio Padilla – Nottingham:

  • ‘Parallel worlds.’

Pete Watkins – Birmingham

Cristina Lazzeroni – Birmingham

Nigel Watson – Birmingham

Paul Newman – Birmingham

Gary Barker – Warwick

Steve Boyd – Warwick

Tim Gershon – Warwick

Paul Harrison – Warwick

Sinead Farrington – Warwick:

  • the ATLAS experiment, Higgs search and Higgs measurements

Michal Kreps – Warwick

Wales

Chris Allton – Swansea University:

  • ‘Particle physics from apples: how Newton paved the way for the Large Hadron Collider.’

Graham Shore – Swansea University:

  • ‘The LHC @ CERN – what do we hope to find and when?’

Tegid Wyn Jones – Swansea University:

  • Welsh language a speciality

South West England

Physics talks from University of Bristol

Helen Heath – Bristol

Vincent Smith – Bristol:

  • ‘Quarks and leptons: the Standard Model of elementary particle physics’
  • ‘Relativity and the twin paradox’
  • ‘Wave particle duality: is the electron there when you are not looking?’
  • ‘The Higgs boson and other things we don’t know yet’
  • ‘Matter and antimatter’
  • ‘What time is it on Mars: how to measure time on earth and other planets.’

Joel Goldstein – Bristol:

  • ‘Particle physics and the LHC.’

Greg Heath – Bristol

Dave Newbold – Bristol

Jonas Rademacker – Bristol

Paras Naik – Bristol

Martin Lavelle – Plymouth:

  • ‘What’s the matter with antimatter?’
  • ‘From the light bulb to quantum computing’
  • ‘Chocolate, mirrors and the speed of light.’

London, South and South East

Chamkaur Ghag – University College London:

  • ‘Dark matter detection experiments.’

David Miller – University College London:

  • ‘The sex life of the proton’
  • ‘Cosmic etiquette’
  • ‘Z, LEP and the universe.’

Jon Butterworth – University College London:

  • ‘ATLAS and the LHC.’

Nikos Konstanidis – University College London:

  • Higgs boson
  • general ATLAS and the LHC talks

Ryan Nichol – University College London:

  • particle physics in Antarctica
  • cosmic rays and neutrinos

Mario Campanelli – University College London:

  • general talks about CERN and the LHC

Laura Manenti – University College London

Gavin Hesketh – University College London:

  • ‘Solving a subatomic mystery: the Higgs boson and the LHC.’

Frank Deppisch – University College London:

  • ‘Beyond the Standard Model’
  • the LHC
  • neutrinos

Pedro Teixeira-Dias – Royal Holloway University of London:

  • ‘The Higgs boson’ (for A-level students)

Veronique Boisvert – Royal Holloway University of London:

  • ‘The LHC: a tunnel to the beginning of time’

Jocelyn Monroe – Royal Holloway University of London:

  • ‘Dark matter: you can’t see it but it’s everywhere!’

Bob Brown – Rutherford Appleton Laboratory:

Email: bob.brown@stfc.ac.uk

Stephen Haywood – Rutherford Appleton Laboratory:

  • ‘What makes the world tick.’

Email: stephen.haywood@stfc.ac.uk

William Murray – STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory:

  • ‘The LHC and the discovery of the Higgs boson.’

Suzie Sheehy – STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory:

  • ‘Five things you should never do with a particle accelerator’
  • ‘Accelerated dreams.’

Steve Worm – STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Email: steve.worm@stfc.ac.uk

Peter Kalmus – Queen Mary, University of London:

  • particles and the universe, antimatter, the forces of nature
  • ‘Mirror images, antimatter and time reversal.’

Jo Cole – Brunel University

Paul Kyberd – Brunel University:

  • ‘Working at CERN’
  • ‘Darkness visible’
  • ‘Neutrinos and conservation laws’
  • ‘CP violation and the origin of matter.’

Steve Lloyd – Queen Mary, University of London:

  • ‘The discovery of the Higgs boson’
  • ‘ATLAS and the Large Hadron Collider.’

Sanjaye Ramgoolam – Queen Mary, University of London:

  • ‘String theory and hidden dimensions of spacetime’
  • ‘Duality between gravity and light in string theory.’

Henrique Araujo – Imperial College London:

  • ‘Mining For WIMPs: the search for dark matter underground.’

Gavin Davies – Imperial College London:

  • ‘Holding it all together: the Higgs boson.’

Ulrik Egede – Imperial College London:

  • ‘Searching for cracks in the Standard Model.’

Elliot Leader – Imperial College London:

  • ‘Quarks: seeing inside the fundamental particles in nature.’

Ken Long – Imperial College London:

  • ‘Neutrinos and the physics of flavour.’

Todd Huffman – Oxford:

  • the Higgs boson discovery and other high energy topics

Gerald Myatt – Oxford:

  • ‘Dark matter in the universe.’

Hans Kraus – Oxford

Tony Weidberg – Oxford:

  • ‘Everything you ever wanted to know about quarks – but were afraid to ask’
  • Higgs discovery

Alan Barr – Oxford:

  • ‘Atom smashing – the world’s biggest experiment.’

Brian Foster – Oxford:

  • ‘Superstrings’
  • ‘Einstein’s universe.’

Nick Evans – Southampton

Jonathan Flynn – Southampton

Steve King – Southampton

Stefano Moretti – Southampton

Chris Sachrajda – Southampton

Darren Baskill – University of Sussex – main contact:

  • use this contact to request talks from the Sussex group

Antonella De Santo – University of Sussex:

  • ‘The Big Bang experiment.’

Fabrizio Salvatore – University of Sussex

Simon Peeters – University of Sussex:

  • ‘Studying the universe from 2km underground – detecting dark matter and neutrinos’
  • ‘Captain Neutrino.’

Last updated: 26 February 2024

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