University of Southampton professor Alexey Kavokin has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Russian-Armenian University in Yerevan, becoming only the second British physicist to receive the prize in the institution’s distinguished history. He was presented with the award by Yerevan’s Faculty of Physics and Technology, joining the University of Bristol’s Professor Sir Michael Berry who previously received the award in 2012.

Alexey, an expert in solid state optics and semiconductor physics, has built an international reputation across a 12-year career in Southampton and currently contributes to the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Quantum, Light and Matter division.

“It is a great honour to become only the second British physicist to receive such recognition from this significant institution,â€? Alexey says. “I deeply respect the scientific culture of our Armenian colleagues and hope I can contribute to the strengthening of cooperation between the UK and Armenia. I was delighted to first hear this news from Professor Hayk Sargsyan, Dean of the Faculty of Physics and Technology, and am humbled to hear that my name was put forward by several members of their team.â€?

Alexey’s academic career has included spells at the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in Russia and the Blaise Pascal University in France. In 2010, he co-founded the Mediterranean Institute of Fundamental Physics, and was later appointed Head of the Spin Optics Laboratory at the University of Saint Petersburg.

The Russian-Armenian University is an intergovernmental university under the joint authority of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia. In 2017, it received the nation’s equal highest rating from the Academic Ranking of Work Universities – European Standard (ARES).

Music fans engaged with astronomy research from the University of Southampton through an interactive ‘Bringing Research to Life’ Roadshow at Glastonbury Festival’s Science Tent at the end of June. The Science Tent, which had thousands of visitors during the five-day festival, was part of a wider outreach presence by several universities in the south.

Representatives from the South East Physics Network (SEPnet) engaged with nearly 900 festivalgoers to ‘Guess the Gas’ as they showcased research from the Department of Physics and Astronomy’s Supernova Group at this summer’s festival. The activity - which encouraged participants to use and take away a pair of Diffraction Grating Glasses - challenged visitors to identify elements within gas tubes. This introduced the science of spectroscopy which has applications in astronomy, such as measuring the speed of galaxies and the expansion of the universe.

Sadie Jones, Outreach Leader in Astronomy, says: “It is always a thrill to share Southampton’s world-leading research with a diverse and energetic audience at Glastonbury Festival, and our science tent was once again a popular addition to the Green Futures field this year. We were really pleased with levels of engagement, with people from across all ages spending time chatting about our research.â€?

Sadie was one of three SEPnet representatives at the international festival from Tuesday 20th to Monday 26th June, and engaged with an audience of 470 men and 410 women that passed through the Southampton roadshow.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy takes part in several year-round public engagement programmes that encourage more students to study physics at A-Level and beyond. Activities include the free Soton Astrodome mobile planetarium and the Light Express Roadshow.

Find out more about Physics and Astronomy’s outreach and public engagement at: phys.soton.ac.uk/outreach

Professor Malcolm Coe from the University of Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has had an asteroid named in his honour. This is in recognition of his decades of contributions to the field of astronomy.

He receives the tribute after a nomination for the asteroid, which was recently found to be orbiting between Mars and Jupiter, was approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU).

The asteroid, now known as 9015 Coe, is a similar size to the Isle of Wight and is believed to consist of a dark carbon dust.

Malcolm joins an elite club to have had one of the universe’s thousands of asteroids receive their name, with other honourees including J.R.R Tolkien, Bruce Springsteen and the members of Monty Python.

“This comes as a complete surprise to me,â€? he says. “I am extremely overwhelmed after 40 years as a professional astronomer to have such a lasting memorial in the sky. This is a very poignant acknowledgement of my research.â€?

9015 Coe was first discovered in 1985 but has not been able to receive a name until its orbit was recently identified. Located in an asteroid belt in the heart of our Solar System, it is approximately 16km in diameter and has an orbital year the equivalent of four and a half Earth years. It cannot be seen by the naked eye but is visible through good amateur telescopes.

Naming is regulated by the IAU and is only awarded once the asteroid is awarded a permanent designation. 9015 Coe’s nomination was put forward by the Deputy Director of the Minor Planet Center in Boston, USA. Malcolm’s research at the University of Southampton focuses on objects much further away in the universe; he investigates X-ray binaries in the Milky Way and Magellanic Cloud galaxies.

You can discover more details about the 9015 Coe asteroid through the NASA website.

This image comes from the WISE project - University of California, Los Angeles, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology - funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.