Raising awareness of exciting research

Physics and Astronomy’s Public Engagement and Outreach Team is taking research out and about into the community to help raise people’s awareness of the exciting work being carried out – and the talks are proving extremely popular with recently packed-out venues.

Academics from the division have been invited to take part in a series of Café Scientifiques in the region that aim to give people the chance to explore the latest ideas in science and technology for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

Café Scientifique is a long-running international initiative set up to run in cafes, bars, restaurants and even theatres, where the general public can come along to engage with a speaker to learn more about the latest research.

Recently researchers from Physics and Astronomy have been enthralling audiences with discussions about dark matter in the Universe, laser technology and holography. At one of the latest talks in Winchester dozens of people packed out the venue to hear researcher Dr Alexander Merle exploring the topic of how much dark matter there is in the Universe.

Public Engagement Leader Pearl John said: “In Physics and Astronomy we realise the importance of engaging people in the local community and wider afield in our exciting research. We have a long history with Café Scientifique locally and used to run one in Southampton.

“We are absolutely delighted that our recent talks have proved so popular with the public. Alex’s talk attracted so many interested participants that we have now arranged for him to hold another seminar in Winchester in March and he has also been invited to talk at the Southampton Café Scientifique.”

Contributing to the Café Scientifique talks are just one of the ways in which academics get involved in the extensive programme of outreach and public engagement activities many of which are run by the team in Physics and Astronomy.

“As a division we have a major responsibility to contribute to society through public engagement and we can also gain a lot from these events in return. My own research has benefited tremendously from the feedback and ideas I have got from giving talks to societies and interest groups,” said Pearl.

Physics and Astronomy are also working with their colleagues in Electronics and Computer Science who have recently set up a Virtual Café Scientifique – a cyber café where people can log on and find out about the exciting science and engineering research being carried out at the University.