College & RAE



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The College of Science and Engineering

Index Page

1. College of Science and Engineering 2

2. The School of Biological Sciences 3

3. The School of Chemistry 7

4. The School of Engineering 8

5. The School of GeoSciences 11

6. The School of Informatics 12

7. The School of Mathematics 15

8. The School of Physics and Astronomy 16

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Level 2

College of Science and Engineering

The College of Science and Engineering (CSE) is one of the largest and highest-ranked science and engineering groupings in the UK. Headed by Professor Lesley Yellowlees, CSE comprises seven Schools (Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, GeoSciences, Informatics, Mathematics, and Physics and Astronomy). Informatics is located in the University’s Central Area near George Square, with the other six 2 miles further south at the King’s Buildings. The College has over 2,700 academic and support staff, and educates some 6,000 undergraduates, 800 taught postgraduates and 1,500 research students.  It is in the front rank of UK university science and engineering groupings for research quality and income, and is a key player in many European and international research collaborations.

Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014

In the 2014 REF over 95% of our staff were submitted. Of our seven submissions, four of which were as a joint research school in combination with a strategic research university partner through pooling, 3 were ranked top in the UK and all 7 were in the top 5 in their discipline in the Times Higher Power rankings.



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Level 4

School of Biological Sciences

As the modern inheritors of our 400-year-old reputation for excellence, our staff and students contribute to a vibrant academic community whose visions are shaping tomorrow’s world.

The leading edge: With current research award value in excess of £175 million, the School of Biological Sciences is at the leading edge in fundamental biological research and teaching and innovative multi-disciplinary science.

Our staff and students: The School includes about 125 Principal Investigators, both academic teaching staff and independently-funded senior research fellows. Around 260 research assistants, most of whom are postdoctoral, 100 research technicians and more than 200 PhD students work with these Principal Investigators. We have around 1200 undergraduate and taught postgraduate students. Some 130 administrative and other technical staff support the School's academic activities.

Research: Principal Investigators and their research teams are members of one of the School’s six research-focused Institutes:

▪ Institute of Cell Biology

▪ Institute of Evolutionary Biology

▪ Institute of Immunology and Infection Research

▪ Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences

▪ Institute for Stem Cell Research (part of the cross-College Centre for Regenerative Medicine)

▪ Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology

Many of our staff and research students also participate in one or more of our cross-disciplinary Research Centres:

▪ Research Centres

The School is a member of SULSA, the Scottish Universities Life Science Alliance.

Learning, teaching and research training: With 15 Honours programmes and 7 MSc programmes we offer a wide choice for all students. More than 350 students per year are admitted to our taught programmes, which are managed and supported by the Biology Teaching Organisation.

PhD students and research masters students are members of the Graduate School of Biological Sciences, which provides overarching support for research students.

Professional services: The School has a large and effective team of professional services staff providing support for teaching administration and student services, research, finance and human resources administration, technical & scientific facilities and services, IT services, and health & safety.

Working in the School: We aim to ensure that our culture and systems support flexible and family-friendly working and to recognise and value diversity across all our staff and students. The School has an active programme offering support and professional development opportunities for all staff. We place a particular focus on development for early-career researchers (postgraduate and postdoctoral research staff and personal fellowship holders), offering mentoring and an active ‘BioDocSoc’ organisation that brings together researchers for networking, events and training opportunities.

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Level 5

Biology Teaching organisation - text not required at this stage.

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Level 5

The Institute of Cell Biology (ICB)

The Institute of Cell Biology (ICB) is a world-leading research centre for cell and molecular biology. Our research aims to uncover fundamental mechanisms responsible for the stability, transmission and expression of genetic information in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, as well as studies of processes underlying microbial physiology and pathogenesis. We work with a wide range of experimental systems including cell culture, bacteria, yeast, Drosophila and mouse.

We work closely with other areas of the School and with colleagues in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, and have particularly strong links with members of the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology and with SynthSys (the centre for Synthetic & Systems Biology), with whom we have common research interests and many collaborative projects. Facilities include high through-put DNA sequencing, protein production and purification, biophysical and kinetic analysis of proteins, in silico screening for drug leads, proteomics, optical and electron microscopy.

ICB incorporates the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology, a flagship research centre answering fundamental questions relating to cellular function. Our research is funded by, amongst others, BBSRC, CR-UK, European Commission, Gates Foundation, Mayo Foundation, MRC, Royal Society and the Wellcome Trust.



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Level 5

The Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IEB)

At the Institute of Evolutionary Biology we study evolution in the broadest possible sense, from virtually every angle and using a great range of organisms and techniques.

Our research falls under three broad themes:

Evolutionary and Quantitative Genetics

We study fundamental and applied aspects of genetics, from theoretical population genetics to the genetics of complex traits.

Evolutionary Ecology and Behaviour

We explore the evolutionary causes and consequences of ecological interactions and behaviour, using theoretical and empirical approaches.

Biodiversity and Ecology

We examine biodiversity and ecological complexity, from genomes to ecosystems.

Our interdisciplinary research and teaching benefits from strong links with members of the Institute of Immunology and Infection Research (IIIR), the Edinburgh Infectious Diseases network (EID), the Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, the Life Physics Group, the Roslin Institute, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Our funders include BBSRC, NERC, charities and government bodies.



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Level 5

The Institute for Immunology and Infection Research (IIIR)

IIIR conducts fundamental research across the areas of immunology, infection, genetics and

epidemiology, in order to develop new interventions to control human and animal diseases. The Institute encompasses an exceptional breadth of pathogen research, from viruses to helminth parasites, on a wide platform of scientific approaches from functional genomics to mathematical biology. IIIR's environment and facilities offer outstanding opportunities for interdisciplinary research into immunology and infection. Our four main themes are: fundamental immunology; immune regulation of disease; molecular biology and genetics of parasites; and host-pathogen population biology. Research is funded by a wide range of sponsors including MRC, the Wellcome Trust, other charities, industry and the European Union.

IIIR has strong links with the Institute for Evolutionary Biology, in particular through the Centre for Immunity, Infection and Evolution (supported by the Wellcome Trust), which promotes collaborations between basic and clinical scientists (through joint projects with the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine), between empirical and mathematical scientists, and between immunological and evolutionary biologists.



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Level 5

The Institute of Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences (IMPS)

The Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences provides a stimulating environment for studies on a broad range of plant-based topics. IMPS is one of few plant-based research and teaching Institutes within the UK. Our research uses genetics, biochemistry, cell biology and modelling to examine how plants develop, function and evolve. Main research themes include developmental biology, plant cell signalling, speciation and molecular plant pathology.

Research is funded by a diversity of organisations including BBSRC and commercial companies, and is supported by state-of the art facilities; an IMPS research forum facilitates inter-laboratory collaborations. IMPS has close links with SynthSys (the centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology at Edinburgh) and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh (RBGE), providing further breadth to our research base. In addition, researchers within IMPS have strong links with the James Hutton Institute.

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Level 5

Centre for Regenerative Medicine (Institute for Stem Cell Research)

The Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) is a world-leading research centre bringing together 19 research groups led by non-clinical and clinician scientists working in both basic and clinical research to study stem cells, disease and tissue repair to advance human health. Our research is aimed at developing new treatments for major diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, degenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, and liver failure. The Centre was awarded MRC Centre status in 2008, with the mission being to gain fundamental understanding of stem cells and regeneration and to use this knowledge to improve human health and provide leadership in training and in public engagement. The Centre is housed in a purpose-built new facility, the £54M Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine, based at Edinburgh’s Little France hospital campus, which has enabled co-location of the School’s Institute for Stem Cell Research with scientists in Medicine & Veterinary Medicine. The new building offers a dynamic and interactive environment with excellent in-house facilities. Research is funded by the MRC, BBSRC, the Wellcome Trust, the Leukaemia Research Fund, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Human Frontiers Science Program Organisation and other agencies.

As well as creating a vibrant and cohesive scientific community, this move complements the close interactions with colleagues in other parts of the School of Biological Sciences, notably the Institute of Cell Biology (including the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell Biology) and the Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, by enabling us also to tap into strengths on the medical campus that include a teaching hospital, a Wellcome-funded clinical research facility, and a Wellcome and MRC-funded human research imaging facility. Internationally we have strong collaborative interactions with the RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology in Japan and we are a major partner in the European Consortium for Stem Cell Research, EuroStemCell, an FP6 integrated project.



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Level 5

The Institute of Structural & Molecular Biology

ISMB studies the structural nature and impact of biomolecules from details of their atomic structure, through their assembly into larger scale molecular machines on up to studying the large scale effects of these molecular assemblies. ISMB contains groups investigating molecular structure using techniques such as biomolecular nuclear magnetic resonance, X-ray crystallography and computational structure prediction, as well as the full panoply of methods for protein production and biological characterisation. Facilities include high through-put DNA sequencing, protein production and purification, biophysical and kinetic analysis of proteins, in silico screening for drug leads, proteomics, optical and electron microscopy.

This diverse structural information is often combined with various other physical methods to comprehensively characterise biomolecules of interest to the pharmaceutical and food industries. The range of molecules studied is large, ranging from cell cycle control, cytoskeletal construction, electron transfer, control/implementation of biosynthetic pathways, molecules implicated in the import, export and persistence of bacterial cells within host cells. ISMB has close collaborative research links with the School’s Institute of Cell Biology, with SynthSys (synthetic and systems biology) and with colleagues in the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine, amongst other groupings. With links to the Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions (CSEC) we are also interested in the mechanisms by which biomolecules survive in conditions that would normally lead to their destruction.



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Level 4

The School of Chemistry

The School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh has a long and distinguished history. The first Chemistry Professor was appointed to the Chair in 1713 and the Edinburgh University student-run Chemical Society is regarded as the oldest chemical society in the world. The School is run as a single academic unit with about 45 academic staff, a similar number of professional support staff, about 200 research students and post-doctoral workers and a first year intake of about 135 Chemistry undergraduates.

The School of Chemistry at Edinburgh holds a Gold Athena SWAN award, in recognition of excellence in science, engineering and technology employment in higher education relating to supporting women in Science.

Research and EaStCHEM

Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh has over £33M of current research grants and an international research reputation. The research school together with its sister school from the University of St Andrews form EaStCHEM. In the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008, EaStCHEM is joint 4th in the Grade Point Average (GPA) metric and first in the UK when staff numbers are factored in (known as the power ranking).

This world-class centre for chemistry has four research groupings: the Chemistry/Biology Interface; Experimental and Theoretical Chemical Physics; Molecular Synthetic Chemistry; and Materials Chemistry. Many academics are involved in more than one research area and this breadth of activity is also indicated in our research interactions with our EaStCHEM partner and other disciplines.

World class research support facilities are available, including recently refurbished laboratories, a full suite of high- and low-field NMR instrumentation, mass spectrometry, X-ray crystallography, fermentation suite and the EaStCHEM Research Computing Facility.



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Level 4

The School of Engineering

The integrated School of Engineering was formed in 2002 from the various individual departments to address diverse and complex challenges across the entire field of engineering, at the micro- and macroscopic/global scales. At the microscopic scale, its research supports the design and deployment of novel nanotechnology and devices for biological monitoring and medical diagnosis; at the macro/global scale, it optimises the security and sustainability of the built environment and develops engineering solutions to issues raised by climate change. The Vision of the School is the achievement of excellence across each of its five research areas, from the science and mathematics that underpin engineering research, to its industrial and commercial applications and four teaching disciplines, all accredited by the professional Engineering Institutes. Not only was the School ranked third (Research Fortnight Power Analysis) in General Engineering in the UK Research Assessment Exercise (2008), but it also has a strong track record in producing more than 50 technology spin-outs and developing industry links that enable our graduates to build relationships that last a whole career. In 2011/2012 the School was successful in achieving £28m research awards/income.

The School is one of the largest in the University, comprising over 150 staff and over 350 postgraduate, 140 MSc and 1,400 undergraduate students. The School occupies approximately 10,000 m2 in over ten buildings on the University’s King's Buildings site in South Edinburgh.

Each member of academic staff teaches in one of four engineering disciplines and is a member of a Research Institute:

Research Institutes

• Digital Communications

• Energy Systems

• Infrastructure and Environment

• Integrated Micro and Nano Systems

• Materials and Processes

Teaching disciplines

• Chemical Engineering

• Civil & Environmental Engineering

• Electrical Engineering & Electronics

• Mechanical Engineering

The School currently offers 43 degree programme titles including combined degrees with Computer Science, Management and Architecture. The School offers the four year BEng and five year MEng degree programmes, all accredited by the professional institutions, and 10 taught MSc degrees.

Facilities and Centres

UK Carbon Capture and Storage Research Centre is a virtual hub that brings together UK carbon capture and storage (CCS) researchers and acts as a two-way interface between the academic community and key stakeholders (e.g. government, industry and potential international collaborators).

The Industrial Doctorate Centre in Offshore Renewable Energy will train 50 engineering doctorate students over nine years in all aspects of Offshore Renewable Energy.

The UK All-Waters Combined Current and Wave Test Facility for wave and tidal devices will be operational by 2013 and will enhance the University’s leadership in low-carbon energy research.

The BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering hosts bespoke equipment to support research and consultancy with precisely controlled high temperatures and the latest image analysis techniques.

The recently refurbished Structures Test Hall is our high-headroom lab for testing large and unusual assemblies. There are state-of-the-art lab facilities for developing and testing NDE and material handling technologies, a smart infrastructure lab and a good range of environmental engineering testing resources for the water and waste management sectors.

The School of Engineering is a partner in SynthSys, the Centre for Synthetic and Systems Biology which is an interdisciplinary research environment with members across many Research Institutes, Colleges and Schools, including The University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University and BioSS. It aims to pioneer genetic and chemical tools to manipulate the cell, technologies to quantify responses at the single-cell level, and mathematical models to predict and control cellular behaviour.



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Level 5

Teaching Organisation – information not required at this stage.

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Level 5

Research Institute for Digital communications

The Institute for Digital Communications pioneers new theories and techniques in a field that has come to power the global economy. Among recent highlights: Professor Harald Haas’s ‘Li-fi’ system of light bulb-based wireless communication was named among the world’s top inventions of 2011by ‘Time’ magazine.



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Level 5

Research Institute for Energy systems

The Institute for Energy Systems is helping to shape tomorrow’s difficult energy decisions. The Institute continues a long line of world-leading innovation by Edinburgh researchers, from the ‘Duck’ wave energy converter invented in the 1970s by Stephen Salter – now Emeritus Professor of Engineering Design – to direct drive electrical generators, wave generation technology and the latest hydraulic transmission systems. Our research covers machinery, electronics, power distribution, marine energy including offshore wind generation, climate change impact assessment, and policy development.



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Level 5

Research Institute for Infrastructure and environment

The Institute for Infrastructure and Environment is shaping the development of better technologies to improve the built and natural environments. The Institute hosts the world leading BRE Centre for Fire Safety Engineering including similarly excellent activities in environmental engineering, bulk materials handling, high-speed rail, non-destructive testing, design, performance, resilience and regulation of structures and systems.



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Level 5

Research Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano systems

The Institute for Micro and Nano Systems’ research encompasses integrated circuit design, system-on-chip design, microfabrication, micro-electro mechanical systems, micro-machining and neural computation. We have a particular focus on bioelectronics, biomechanics and other health-related areas.



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Level 5

Research Institute for Materials and Processes

The Institute for Materials and Processes carries out world-class research into every conceivable kind of material, ranging from fluids, and soft matter to hard materials. Its researchers study processes spanning biomedical, mechanical and chemical engineering and its focus ranges from nanosystems and multiphase flows to carbon capture.



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Level 4

The School of GeoSciences

Who we are: In the School of GeoSciences we explore the factors and forces that shape our world. We aim to develop a better understanding of the coupled Earth System, that is, the interactions between the Earth’s geosphere, atmosphere, oceans, biosphere and cryosphere, the drivers of variability and change, and the roles and responses of humans in this complex interplay. With over 370 academics, researchers and research students, we are the largest grouping of geoscientists in the UK. Research activity is currently coordinated within three main Research Institutes – Global Change, Earth and Planetary Science, and Geography and the Lived Environment – and within many smaller research groupings that may reach beyond the School.

Distinctive features: A distinguishing feature of the School is the combination of breadth, relevance and strength of our research and teaching. For example, our teaching and research embrace issues relating to equality and vulnerability, development and sustainability, climate and environmental change, energy, food and water security, mitigation of anthropogenic environmental change, natural resources, waste management, and natural disasters. By creating and supporting an intellectual environment that explicitly strives to remove barriers between disciplines, engenders ambition, and encourages internal and external collaboration, we are ideally placed to help lead in addressing some of the most compelling issues of our time. We are addressing many current ‘grand challenges’ effectively though: building on strong core disciplines that include ecology, environmental sciences, geography, geology, geophysics, meteorology and oceanography; utilising approaches that range from whole-system-scale modelling to process studies and critical analysis; and actively fostering collaboration with academic and non-academic stakeholders within and beyond the University.



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Level 5

Geography - text not required at this stage..

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Level 4

The School of Informatics

Informatics is the study of how natural and artificial systems store, process and communicate information. Research in Informatics promises to take information technology to a new level, and to place information at the heart of 21st century science, technology and society.  The University has adopted our vision of the future of Informatics, as a discipline central to a new enlightenment in scholarship and learning, and critical to the future development of science, technology and society.

The School provides a fertile environment for a wide range of studies focussed on understanding computation on both artificial and natural systems. The research draws on concepts from computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology and biology.

More details about these research activities can be found at  

Informatics is one of seven schools in the College of Science and Engineering, at the University of Edinburgh. It was the only department in the UK awarded the top 5*A rating in Computer Science in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. With 87.1 research active staff submitted for assessment, we are also the UK's biggest research group in this area. We received a top excellent rating in the most recent SHEFC Teaching Quality Assessment exercise. Edinburgh came top in the last two Research Assessment Exercises (RAE). RAE 2008 results have confirmed Edinburgh's position as the largest and best Informatics research centre in the UK.  The various institutes in The School of Informatics have come together and are now housed under one roof in the new £40 million Informatics Forum Building on Crichton Street.

The School of Informatics holds a Silver Athena SWAN award, in recognition of our commitment to advance the representation of women in science, mathematics, engineering and technology.



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Level 5

Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications

CISA undertakes basic and applied research and development in knowledge representation, automated reasoning and computational logic. It has interests in agent systems, and in data-intensive research. Through its Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI), it works with others to deploy the technologies associated with this research.



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Level 5

Informatics Life-Sciences Institute

LSI was formed for work at the informatics/life sciences interface and will draw together and build on existing work including well-established activities in neuroinformatics, modelling, sensori-motor control and bio-mimetic robotics, together with computational systems biology, synthetic biology and bio-informatics.



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Level 5

Institute for Adaptive and Neural Coputation

The Institute studies brain processes and artificial learning systems, drawing on the disciplines of neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, computational science, mathematics and statistics.



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Level 5

Institute for Computing Systems Architecture

The ICSA is primarily concerned with the architecture and engineering of future computing systems. Its fundamental research aims are: to extend the understanding of the performance and scalability of existing computational systems; to improve the characteristics of current systems through innovations in algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages and protocols; to develop new and novel architectures and to develop new engineering methods by which future systems can be created and maintained.



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Level 5

Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation

The Institute is dedicated to the computational study of language, communication, and cognition, in both humans and machines. Research areas include automatic speech and language processing, dialogue systems, models of human communication and language processing, information retrieval and presentation, and assistive technology.



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Level 5

Institute of Perception, Action and BehaviourInstitute of Perception, Action and Behaviour

The Institute aims to study principles behind linking computational action, perception, representation and generation processes to real or virtual worlds. Research areas include robotics, computer vision, graphics and animation, statistical machine learning and human motor control.



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Level 5

Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

Achieving a foundational understanding of problems and issues arising in computation and communication through the development of appropriate and applicable formal models and mathematical theories.

(maths.ed.ac.uk)

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Level 5

AIAI

Human Communication Research Centre

iDEA LabAIAI

All of the above – text not supplied at this stage

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Level 4

The School of Mathematics

The University of Edinburgh's School of Mathematics is one of the leading centres for research and teaching in mathematics in Europe. As a partner in the Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences - a centre for research and postgraduate training bringing together the research activities of the School and the Department of Mathematics and Department of Actuarial Mathematics & Statistics at Heriot-Watt University - we are one of the largest mathematical groupings in the UK. Edinburgh is also home to the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, a UK centre for international workshops and meetings in mathematics. Further information about the School, our research and our teaching is available at

The School covers a very broad range of research topics in pure mathematics, applied mathematics, operational research and statistics. It has nearly fifty permanent members of academic staff and around ten research fellows and research associates. There are approximately sixty graduate research students and over one hundred and fifty MSc students. The academic staff of the School have significant collaborations with researchers throughout the world, and the School is committed to encouraging research at the highest possible level.

The School was judged "Excellent" in the last Teaching Quality Assessment and was rated 5* (Pure), 5 (Applied) and 4 (Statistics and Operational Research) in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise. It is committed to maintaining and improving the quality of its teaching provision, including the related administrative procedures. Within the school there are a wide range of research areas and many seminars and colloquia are run throughout the academic year.

The School is located in the James Clerk Maxwell Building (JCMB) which is situated on the King's Buildings site, approximately 3 kilometres south of the centre of the city of Edinburgh. The JCMB also houses parts of School of Physics, BioSS, the University's Information Services (IS) and Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC); a leading European supercomputing facility. The Schools of Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering and Electronics, and parts of GeoSciences are within a few minutes' walk.

(maths.ed.ac.uk)

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Level 5

International Centre for Mathematical Science - text not required at this stage.

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Level 4

The School of Physics and Astronomy

The School of Physics and Astronomy is in the College of Science & Engineering and comprises the Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics (IPNP), the Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems (ICMCS), and the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), and EPCC, Europe's premier advanced computing technology transfer centre. The School has around seventy academic staff. In the most recent Research Assessment Exercise the School was ranked 2nd of the large Physics departments in UK universities and 6th overall. The School runs undergraduate programmes at BSc and MPhys level in Physics, Mathematical Physics, Theoretical Physics, Computational Physics, Astrophysics and (jointly with the School of Chemistry) Chemical Physics. We also run a MSc programmes in High Performance Computing. The undergraduate programme has flexible entry and exit points, creating courses of variable duration and level. The School accepts around 120 new undergraduates into its programmes each year.



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Level 5

School of Physics and Astronomy - text not supplied at this stage.

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Level 5

The Institute for Astronomy

The Institute for Astronomy (IFA) is a research and teaching group within the School. It is one of the UK's major centres of astronomical research, with special strengths in survey astronomy, cosmology, active galaxies and the formation of stars and planets.

The IfA runs introductory courses in astronomy for students of any discipline at first year level, Honours Degree courses in Astrophysics (both BSc and MPhys), and research degrees leading to the award of PhD in astronomy. The IfA is co-located with the Astronomy Technology Centre on Blackford Hill, at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.



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Level 5

Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics

Nuclear physics deals with the properties of nuclei and how their properties may be understood in terms of the interactions between the constituents. The basic questions facing nuclear physics today range over the extremes of physical phenomena from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Thus the properties of nuclei have their origins in the basic interactions of elementary particles, quarks and gluons, while the macroscopic evolution of the universe is directly related to the interactions between nuclei.

The Edinburgh Nuclear Physics Group has a uniquely diverse range of interests, conducting research into the building blocks of Nature in a wide range of extreme environments. The properties of nuclei have their origins in the basic interactions of elementary particles, quarks and gluons, while the macroscopic evolution of stars and galaxies is directly related to the interactions between nuclei. Direct searches for Dark Matter are seeking to identify the dominant contribution to mass at the galactic and larger scales.

The Particle Physics Theory group is interested in fundamental physics at all energy scales from the hadronic binding energy scale to the scale of present and future particle colliders up to the energy scales of the very early universe at its first fractional second of existence. We have interest and theoretical involvement in most current and upcoming particle physics experiments at the Tevatron and LHC high energy colliders, and in observations made by the WMAP and Planck satellites. We pursue the very latest developments in both perturbative and nonperturbative field theory, renormalization theory, and the application of quantum field theory to other branches of physics such as turbulence theory and condensed matter systems.



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Level 5

Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems

ICMCS deals with the emergent behaviour from many interacting objects. The traditional application of this is to Condensed matter physics (CMP), which is concerned with the study of liquids and solids, and ‘viscoelastic’ materials (such as polymers and suspensions) with properties in between. In essence, condensed matter physics is about discovering and characterising the behaviour of these materials in the laboratory, and understanding such behaviour in terms of the microscopic constituents (atoms, molecules, colloidal particle, etc.). Experimentally, the determination of structure, and the characterisation of static and dynamic optical, electrical, magnetic, mechanical, high pressure and other properties  calls upon a very wide range of tools.  To gain conceptual understanding of phenomena uncovered in the laboratory requires the methods of quantum, classical and statistical mechanics, applied both analytically and by computer simulations.  We have special expertise in  extreme conditions physics (high pressures, high magnetic field, low temperature), and in soft matter, unravelling the complex behaviour of suspensions and polymers.  Finally, we are now applying  the methods and results of CMP  to the study of non-equilibrium complex systems.  This includes biological systems which are, after all, specialised forms of condensed matter. It also includes evolving and social systems such as ecosystems, economics and linguistics.

Applications of the Institute's work are very broad, ranging from life on mars, through terrestrial ecosystems, materials for nuclear reactors, antimicrobial drugs, crystallography at extreme conditions, synthesis of superhard materials, liquid crystals, paints, shampoo to tomato ketchup.  It is therefore not surprising that more physicists work in CMP than in perhaps any other single sub-discipline of physics.



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Level 5

EPPC

Founded at The University of Edinburgh in 1990, EPCC is one of the leading supercomputing centres in Europe. Our expertise includes:

▪ advanced research

▪ technology transfer

▪ commercial consultancy

▪ the provision of supercomputer services to academia and business.

We host the UK's national supercomputing service, HECToR, which includes the world’s first production Cray XT6 system.

Our expertise and computing facilities underpin our long-standing research visitor programmes. EPCC is also a major provider of HPC training in Europe and we offer courses for academic and commercial users throughout the UK and Europe, including our popular MSc in HPC.



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