About the Department of Physics
The Department of Physics at King’s College London has a distinguished history dating back to its founding in 1829. The first professor of the Department was Sir Charles Wheatstone, appointed to the Chair of Experimental Physics in 1834, who strangely did not invent did not invent the Wheatstone Bridge, used for measuring electrical resistance, but did invent the accordion and was involved with the development of the electric telegraph. Other famous professors include James Clerk Maxwell, who derived the unifying equations of electromagnetism while at King’s, and four Nobel laureates: Charles Barkla, Sir Owen Richardson, Sir Edward Appleton and Maurice Wilkins. The significant X-ray crystallography work by Wilkins, Franklin and Gosling, carried out at King’s, led to the discovery of the structure of DNA. It is not surprising that two of the main College buildings – the James Clerk Maxwell Building and the Franklin-Wilkins Building – commemorate the contribution of the Department to the history and reputation of King’s.
The Department today has a reputation as a friendly and supportive environment. The teaching is provided by academic staff with internationally leading reputations in areas of current excitement in physics—understanding the origin of the universe, nanotechnology, the interface between physics and biology, and the modelling of molecules and materials.
King’s College London, the fourth oldest university in England, is one of the top 30 universities in the world (2011/12 QS international world rankings), was the The Sunday Times ‘University of the Year 2010/11’, and is a member of the Russell Group of elite UK research-led universities. The Department of Physics is located on the Strand Campus, right in the heart of central London. It’s location on the 7th floor of the Strand Building offers spectacular views over the Thames to the London Eye and Westminster.
Recent highlights for the Department include the appointments of Professor John Ellis FRS from CERN as Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics, Professor Anatoly Zayats, who brings to the Department a major research programme in the burgeoning new area of plasmonics, and Professor Mark van Schilfgaarde, a world expert in materials modelling. Professor Ellis, who is one of the world’s most highly cited scientists, has secured a prestigious Advanced Investigator Award from the European Research Council, and was named as one the 25“Britons of 2011” by the Daily Telegraph. Further details about the Department’s research can be found on the research web pages.
The Department is committed to public outreach,The Cosmic Rays for UK Schools Project (CORUS) will be featured at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition 2012 (3–8 July). The year 2010 marks the 150th anniversary of the appointment of James Clerk Maxwell to the Chair of Natural Philosophy at King’s. The five-year tenure at the College was the most productive of his life, resulting in the world-changing work. The five-year period 2010–2015 is highlighted with a number of events—a recent one being“From Maxwell To Higgs” which also marked the fact that Peter Higgs, the proposer of the “God particle”, obtained his BSc, MSc and PhD degrees from the Department
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