IPPOG

Members

United Kingdom

Intro

The UK has a diverse and substantial portfolio of particle physics research and outreach activities. UK physicists collaborate and conduct research in projects all over the world and within the UK. These activities include the ATLAS, CMS, LHCb, and ALICE experiments at the Large Hadron Collider, experiments studying the nature of the neutrino such as DUNE, T2K/HyperK, MicroBooNE, SoLiD and SNO+, experiments dedicated to the search for dark matter such as LZ, DarkSide, ADMX and AION, experiments at the intensity frontier such as Mu2e, g-2, Mu3e, and NA62, and robust initiatives in accelerator development, future detector instrumentation, and theoretical research. The UK boasts a vibrant culture of public engagement embedded in individual institutions and spanning experimental research programmes. This includes a national programme of schools masterclasses, and multiple initiatives making use of scientific data from experiments in educational and outreach activities. UK physicists and public engagement professionals regularly organise and contribute to public events at the institutional and national level, and develop online resources, smartphone applications, posters/booklets, and contribute to teacher training and to publications on educational and public engagement pedagogy. The UK hosts successful public engagement collaborations with artists across a range of visual and performing arts. A particular focus of the UK public engagement strategy is in reaching audiences with low science capital or in geographically remote areas. Examples include leadership of the Physics Without Frontiers programme and the development of an award-winning innovative programme to enable visually impaired audiences to engage with particle and accelerator physics.

Details

JOINED: 2016

CURRENT STATUS: MEMBER

LOCAL RESOURCES WEBSITE(S)
STFC outreach webpage

Representative

Chris Allton

Chris AlltonDepartment of Physics, Swansea University, Swansea SA2 8PP, U.K.
+44 (0)1792 295738
c.allton@swan.ac.uk

Chris Allton

Australian by birth and education, Chris’s academic career has taken him to jobs across Europe. He obtained his B.Sc. from the University of Queensland, Brisbane, and a Ph.D. from the Australian National University, Canberra. His research career began with a brief stint in Edinburgh followed by appointments in Southampton and Rome. He then moved to Swansea University in the UK as a member of academic staff. His research interests are in theoretical particle physics and he specialises in predicting the properties of protons, neutrons and other hadrons using supercomputer simulations.

In 2016 Chris founded the Swansea University outreach project, Oriel Science which takes university research, packages this up into interactive and visceral exhibits and puts these in places people go. In 2021, Oriel Science launch its permanent exhibition venue in the heart of Swansea. In all the project has engaged 150,000 people with 30,000 visitors to its exhibitions and an additional 4,000 students attending workshops. In 2024, Oriel Science spun-out as an independent charity so that it could further its mission of enhancing the educational and career journeys of the younger generations, particularly those from disadvantaged groups, and enrich the general public’s affinity with science and research.