Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southampton has a world-class reputation for research excellence and has achieved the top 5* ranking in each of the last two Research Assessment Exercises. We have three major research groups in High Energy Physics, Astronomy and Quantum, Light and Matter (QLM).

Our high-energy physics group has world-leading expertise in theoretical particle physics, ranging from string theory and supersymmetry to lattice QCD simulations to collider phenomenology.

We are a founding member of the NExT Institute for new connections between experiment and theory in particle physics and have close links with the particle physics group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

We run a unique-in-the-UK undergraduate masters degree programme in which our top students spend their final year at CERN working with one of the LHC experiments. There are corresponding programmes in our Astronomy and QLM groups.