The University of Southampton
×
Physics and Astronomy

Published: 24 October 2018
Illustration
The Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE

Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi CBE from the University of Southampton has encouraged academia and industry to continue to embrace racial diversity in an interview for Black History Month with the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).

The Dean of Faculty, which includes the School of Physics and Astronomy, is one of over a dozen prominent black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) engineers who are sharing their stories this month in an online diversity series.

“I am pleased to see more and more high-tech companies embracing racial diversity through BAME post holders in key executive roles,â€? he says. “Whilst Black History Month provides a welcome opportunity to celebrate past achievements, it also enables us to consider next steps to embed a more inclusive, equal and racially-diverse culture at our institution.â€?

The University of Southampton signed the Equality Challenge Unit’s Race Equality Charter (REC) in 2016 and Bashir is leading the institution’s forthcoming submission for a Bronze Award. The University is committed to supporting equality and diversity for staff and students in higher education and is inviting widespread participation in the important discussion through an inaugural REC event on Thursday 18th October.

A guide to Black History Month events taking place across Hampshire, marking the 70th anniversary of the Windrush generation, is available to download on the University website.

Bashir is an Arm Professor of Computer Engineering with a worldwide reputation for research into energy efficient and reliable embedded systems. Earlier this year, he was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to engineering and industry.

You can read Bashir’s full interview with the RAEng through the Celebrating leading minority ethnic engineers online feature.

Articles that may also interest you

Professors Alexander Belyaev and Stefano Moretti have been honoured with the prestigious 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Fellowship news

Dr Philip Wiseman awarded prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Royal Society
Share this article FacebookTwitterWeibo

Our next University Open Days - 6 and 7 July

Book your place at one of our University Open Days. See our campus and facilities, meet our academics and students, and learn more about Physics and Astronomy courses.

Book your place

MSc Optical Fibre and Photonic Engineering

Through our MSc Optical Fibre and Photonic Engineering degree you can gain specialist knowledge of the technologies - such as lasers and optical fibres - that harness the power of light

Find out more

I would recommend Southampton to new students as it is a place where you can really thrive both academically and socially. I have been impressed with how the University listens to its students’ views and, as I am a course representative, I get to see this happen first-hand. There is always something to get involved with, be it a careers fair or a comedy night at The Bridge - since being at university I haven’t had a single boring day! 

Ria Pandit - MPhys Physics with Astronomy, second year

£5,000 a year scholarships

Get your UCAS application in by the 23 November to be in with a chance of receiving one of our scholarships, worth up to £20,000. We award students based on a pre-entrance scholarship exam, taken at our Visit Days.

Find out more

Published: 12 October 2018
Illustration
University of Southampton students explore charity data. Image courtesy of DataKind UK.

Dozens of volunteers delivered valuable data analysis for two national charities in a hackathon-style DataDive at the University of Southampton’s School of Physics and Astronomy.

Data scientists, developers and designers united for the two-day event which sparked new insights and valuable connections for the Shelter and Parkinson’s UK charities.

The DataDive, which was run with DataKind UK and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), attracted almost 90 people at its peak, with almost half of participants either working or studying at the University.

Charity DataDives are collaborative work sessions where volunteers analyse, visualise and mash-up data to give partner organisations initial insights or prototypes to inform their work.

Last month’s event was organised by Royal Society Entrepreneur in Residence Adam Hill, a HAL24K data scientist who is encouraging the incorporation of data science techniques and methodologies within research activities in Physics and Astronomy.

“I think it was a great success. There was a lot of positive energy in the room and impressive engagement from all participants,â€? Adam says. “There was a feeling that everyone got something out of the two days. There have already been conversations about whether some PhD or student projects could be developed that would be beneficial to the charities, which is fantastic news.â€?

Hester Steedman Thake, Data Manager at Shelter, says, “The DataDive was a really valuable experience for Shelter. We learned a lot about new tools and techniques and different ways to look at modelling housing and homelessness risk across the UK. Shelter launched our new strategy this week and this work is really important for us as part of defining new ways of tackling the housing emergency. We will be building on the outputs from the DataDive to develop our approach to modelling housing need in the UK, and to help shape Shelter's engagement with local housing issues over the coming years.â€?

Cathal Doyle, Head of Strategic Intelligence at Parkinson’s UK, says, “By participating in the DataDive we learned a great deal about how we can better combine and analyse different datasets, for instance our data on the prevalence and incidence of Parkinson’s, population projections and hospital admissions. Armed with this information, we can better understand how demand for Parkinson’s services will grow in the future and ways we can plan for this.â€?

Enthusiastic volunteers were still coding beyond 9pm on the first day of the marathon event, with 28 large pizzas swiftly dispatched by the data hungry workforce.

“I very much wanted this to be a proof of concept piece that could demonstrate the value of collaborative partnerships between skilled academics and the private/public sector, but also the value to society of getting those skills out of the academic bubble,â€? co-organiser Adam continues. “I hope that this could inspire future similar events which, when integrated into a programme, would deliver social good to the wider community.â€?

Related Links

The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.

Articles that may also interest you

Professors Alexander Belyaev and Stefano Moretti have been honoured with the prestigious 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Fellowship news

Dr Philip Wiseman awarded prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Royal Society
Share this article FacebookTwitterWeibo

Publications

[Unknown type: UNSPECIFIED]

Share this profile FacebookTwitterWeibo

Published: 9 October 2018
Illustration
The 'Bursting Pulsar' ‘hiccups’ as it strips matter from a nearby giant star

Communities across the globe are celebrating World Space Week, the largest public space event on Earth.

Researchers from the University of Southampton are constantly exploring space through research groups and interdisciplinary activities that reveal new secrets about our galaxies’ planets, stars, black holes and more.

Delve into our School of Physics and Astronomy’s interstellar highlights this World Space Week with these recent research news updates:

Bursting pulsar found to ‘hiccup’ during crucial stage of its lifecycle

Postgraduate researcher Jamie Court discovered that the unique Bursting Pulsar neutron star has a tendency to ‘hiccup’ as it strips matter from a nearby giant star onto its surface.

The observations, featured in a paper in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, established how the star steals matter from a low-mass stellar neighbour.

“It is now believed that, in neutron stars near the end of its process, this flow can sometimes switch on and off, causing the X-rays to slowly sputter out like a dying engine,â€? Jamie explained.

Astronomers reveal secrets of most distant supernova ever detected

Astronomers from the University of Southampton led the discovery of a huge cosmic explosion that took place 10.5 billion years ago, the oldest supernova ever studied.

The exploding star was detected as part of the Dark Energy Survey after rays of light travelled for three quarters of the Universe’s near 14 billion year history.

The distant, bright and extremely rare discovery, named DES16C2nm, was published in The Astrophysical Journal.

New thermal coatings for spacecraft and satellites developed using metamaterials

An international study, driven by Principal Investigators Professor Otto Muskens from Southampton’s Integrated Nanophotonics research group, and Electronic and Computer Science's Professor Kees De Groot, created new Metamaterial Optical Solar Reflectors (Meta-OSRs) that can be placed on the outside of spacecraft to deflect solar radiation while dissipating heat that is generated on board.

The new technology could replace quartz tiles, which are commonly used but have heavy and fragile qualities, and other solutions such as polymer foils that are unsuitable for missions lasting more than three to five years.

The research team’s new meta-OSR coating exploits the potential of metal oxide, a material commonly used for transparent electrical contacts.

Donor star breathes life into zombie companion

Astronomers observed a red giant star breathing life into a dead companion in the birth of a rare binary system.

The puzzling finding, which was identified using the European Space Agency’s Integral space observatory, was analysed using the SMARTnet community of global astronomers initiated by the University of Southampton.

Associate Professor Dr Poshak Gandhi, from the Southampton Astronomy Group and co-author of the study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, welcomed the revelation as a “great example of discoveries waiting to be made in the field of extreme astrophysicsâ€?.

Southampton alumna's neutron star discovery published in Nature Astronomy

Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), including Southampton alumna Liz Bartlett, located a concealed neutron star in a much-studied supernova remnant.

The finding represented the first discovery of an isolated neutron star with a low magnetic field beyond our galaxy.

The location of the stellar corpse was verified by observations from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which Liz has worked with since the year abroad programme during her undergraduate study in Southampton.

Articles that may also interest you

Professors Alexander Belyaev and Stefano Moretti have been honoured with the prestigious 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics

Fellowship news

Dr Philip Wiseman awarded prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Royal Society
Share this article FacebookTwitterWeibo
Telephone:
07485062329
Email:
h.sigurdsson@soton.ac.uk

 PhD

Education:

[2013 - 2016] Doctor of Philosophy at the Division of Physics and Applied Physics (PAP), School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Graduated 12th of December 2016.

[2009 - 2012] Faculty of Physical Sciences, University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands), B.Sc. in physics. Graduated with First Class, June 2012.

Employment:

[October 2018 - Current] Research Fellow in the Hybrid Photonics group at the University of Southampton, Department of Physics and Astronomy. 

[May 2016 - September 2018] Post-Doctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Viðar Guðmundsson and Prof. Ivan Shelykh at the University of Iceland, Natural Science Institute.

[2015] Assistant teacher at Nanyang Technological University: General Physics II (1 semester)

[2010 - 2018] Assistant teacher at University of Iceland: General Physics I (4 semesters); General Physics II (1 semester); Introduction to Quantum Mechanics} \hfill (3 semesters); Thermodynamics (1 semester); Undergraduate Experimental Physics (4 semesters)

Research

Research interests

In the past decade there has been an increasing interest of the condensed matter physics community in an optically responsive quasiparticles known as polariton originating from the strong-coupling regime between light and matter (e.g. microcavity photon modes and quantum well excitons for exciton-polaritons). Being an extremely light and interactive bosonic particle due to its hybrid nature, it shows some astounding properties such as nonequilibrium Bose-Einstein condensation at temperatures higher than conventional cold atom condensates and even superconductors.

Currently, my research lies in the area of theoretically investigating and understanding the properties of strong light-matter interaction, polariton mean field dynamics described by generalized Gross-Pitaevskii / complex Ginzburg-Landau / complex nonlinear Schrödinger type of equations, and the possibilities of application in polaritonic devices. This includes superfluid dynamics, spin/polarization sensitive transport, topological phases, edge states, and exotic defect states such as vortices, half-vortices, solitons, half-solitons, domain walls, and skyrmions. Furthermore, multistable behavior in polariton systems, arising due to the nonlinear nature of polaritons, are of great interest due to its possible application in integrated light-matter circuitry. Advancements in creating polaritons electrically, as opposed to conventional optical methods, is an important step towards construction of low-powered opto-electronic devices with fast signal processing capabilities.

Publications

Sich, Maksym, Tapia-Rodriguez, Lucy E., Sigurdsson, Helgi, Walker, Paul M., Clarke, Edmund, Shelykh, Ivan A., Royall, Benjamin, Sedov, Evgeny S., Kavokin, Alexey V., Skryabin, Dmitry V., Skolnick, Maurice S. and Krizhanovskii, Dmitry N. (2018) Spin domains in one-dimensional conservative polariton solitons. ACS Photonics, 5 (12), 5095-5102. (doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.8b01410).

Kyriienko, O., Sigurdsson, H. and Liew, T.C.H. (2019) Probabilistic solving of NP-hard problems with bistable nonlinear optical networks. Physical Review B, 99 (19), 1-12, [195301]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.99.195301).

Toepfer, Julian, Dominic, Pickup, Lucinda and Sigurdsson, Helgi (2019) Data for Time-Delay Polaritonics. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1149 [Dataset]

Sigurdsson, H., Krivosenko, Y.S., Iorsh, I.V., Shelykh, I.A. and Nalitov, A. (2019) Spontaneous topological transitions in a honeycomb lattice of exciton-polariton condensates due to spin bifurcations. Physical Review B, 100 (23), 1-5, [235444]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.100.235444).

Töpfer, J.D., Sigurdsson, H., Pickup, L. and Lagoudakis, P.G. (2020) Time-delay polaritonics. Communications Physics, 3 (1), 1-8, [2]. (doi:10.1038/s42005-019-0271-0).

Harrison, Stella, Louise, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2020) Data for Synchronization in optically-trapped polariton Stuart-Landau networks. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1268 [Dataset]

Harrison, Stella, Louise, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2020) Synchronization in optically trapped polariton Stuart-Landau networks. Physical Review B, 101 (15), [155402]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.101.155402).

Alyatkin, Sergey, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic, Askitopoulos, Alexis and Sigurdsson, Helgi (2020) Data for Optical Control of Couplings in Polariton Condensate Lattices. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1370 [Dataset]

Alyatkin, Sergey, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic, Askitopoulos, Alexis, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2020) Optical control of couplings in polariton condensate lattices. Physical Review Letters, 124 (20), [207402]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.207402).

Sigurdsson, Helgi (2020) Hysteresis in linearly polarized nonresonantly driven exciton-polariton condensates. Physical Review Research, 2, [023323]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023323).

Pickup, Lucinda and Sigurdsson, Helgi (2020) Data for Synthetic band-structure engineering in polariton crystals with non-Hermitian topological phases. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1194 [Dataset]

Sigurdsson, Helgi, Lagoudakis, Pavlos, Gnusov, Ivan, Askitopoulos, Alexis, Baryshev, Stepan and Ermatov, Timur (2020) Data for: Optical orientation, polarization pinning, and depolarization dynamics in optically confined polariton condensates. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1535 [Dataset]

Gnusov, Ivan, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Baryshev, Stepan, Ermatov, Timur, Askitopoulos, Alexis and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2020) Optical orientation, polarization pinning and depolarization dynamics in optically confined polariton condensates. Physical Review B.

Toepfer, Julian Dominic (2020) Data for Lotka-Volterra population dynamics in coherent and tunable oscillators of trapped polariton condensates. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1622 [Dataset]

Toepfer, Julian Dominic, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Alyatkin, S. and Lagoudakis, P.G. (2020) Lotka-Volterra population dynamics in coherent and tunable oscillators of trapped polariton condensates. Physical Review B, 102 (19), [195428]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.102.195428).

Toepfer, Julian Dominic, Chatzopoulos, Ioannis, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Cookson, Tamsin and Rubo, Y.G. (2020) Data for Engineering spatial coherence in lattices of polariton condensates. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1677 [Dataset]

Toepfer, Julian Dominic, Chatzopoulos, I., Sigurdsson, Helgi, Cookson, T., Rubo, Y.G. and Lagoudakis, Pavlos G. (2021) Engineering spatial coherence in lattices of polariton condensates. Optica, 8 (1), 106-113. (doi:10.1364/OPTICA.409976).

Cookson, Tamsin, Kalinin, Kirill P., Sigurdsson, Helgi, Toepfer, Julian Dominic, Alyatkin, Sergey, Silva, Matteo and Langbein, Wolfgang (2021) Data for Geometric frustration in polygons of polariton condensates creating vortices of varying topological charge. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1738 [Dataset]

Sigurdsson, Helgi, Lagoudakis, Pavlos, Kokhanchik, Pavel, Piętka, Barbara and Szczytko, Jacek (2021) Data for Photonic Berry curvature in double liquid crystal microcavities with broken inversion symmetry. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1755 [Dataset]

Kokhanchik, Pavel, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Piętka, Barbara, Szczytko, Jacek and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Photonic Berry curvature in double liquid crystal microcavities with broken inversion symmetry. Physical Review B, 103 (8), [L081406]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.L081406).

Pickup, Lucinda, Toepfer, Julian Dominic and Sigurdsson, Helgi (2021) Data for: Polariton spin jets through optical control. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1778 [Dataset]

Cherotchenko, Evgeniia, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Askitopoulos, Alexis and Nalitov, Anton (2021) Optically controlled polariton condensate molecules. Physical Review B, 103 (11), [115309]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.115309).

Pickup, L., Töpfer, J.D., Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, P. G. (2021) Polariton spin jets through optical control. Physical Review B, 103 (15), [155302]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.103.155302).

Gnusov, Ivan, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic, Baryshev, Stepan, Alyatkin, Sergey and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Data for All-optical linear polarization engineering in single and coupled exciton-polariton condensates. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1924 [Dataset]

Gnusov, Ivan, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic, Baryshev, Stepan, Alyatkin, Sergey and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) All-optical linear-polarization engineering in single and coupled exciton-polariton condensates. Physical Review Applied, 16, [034014]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.16.034014).

Alyatkin, Sergey, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Toepfer, Julian, Dominic (2021) Data for Quantum fluids of light in all-optical scatterer lattices. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D1947 [Dataset]

Alyatkin, Sergey, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Askitopoulos, Alexis, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Quantum fluids of light in all-optical scatterer lattices. Nature Communications, 12 (1), [5571]. (doi:10.1038/s41467-021-25845-4).

Cookson, Tamsin, Kalinin, Kirill P., Sigurdsson, Helgi, Toepfer, Julian Dominic, Alyatkin, Sergey, Silva, Matteo, Langbein, Wolfgang, Berloff, Natalia G. and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Geometric frustration in polygons of polariton condensates creating vortices of varying topological charge. Nature Communications, 12 (1), [2120].

Wang, Yuan, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Toepfer, Julian, Dominic (2021) Dataset for: Reservoir optics with exciton-polariton condensates. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2062 [Dataset]

Wang, Yuan, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2021) Reservoir optics with exciton-polariton condensates. Physical Review B.

Król, Mateusz, Rechcińska, Katarzyna, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Oliwa, Przemysław, Mazur, Rafał, Morawiak, Przemysław, Piecek, Wiktor, Kula, Przemysław, Lagoudakis, Pavlos G., Matuszewski, Michał, Bardyszewski, Witold, Piȩtka, Barbara and Szczytko, Jacek (2021) Realizing optical persistent spin helix and stern-gerlach deflection in an anisotropic liquid crystal microcavity. Physical Review Letters, 127 (19), 190401. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.190401).

Krol, Mateusz, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Rechcinska, Katarzyna, Oliwa, Przemyslaw, Tyszka, Krzystof, Bardyszewski, Witold, Opala, Andrzej, Matuszewski, Michal, Morawiak, Przemyslaw, Mazur, Rafal, Piecek, Wiktor, Kula, Przemyslaw, Lagoudakis, Pavlos G., Piȩtka, Barbara and Szczytko, Jacek (2021) Observation of second-order meron polarization textures in optical microcavities. Optica, 8 (2), 255-261. (doi:10.1364/OPTICA.414891).

Harrison, Stella, Louise, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Alyatkin, Sergey, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2022) Data for Solving the max-3-cut problem with coherent networks. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2104 [Dataset]

Baryshev, Stepan, Zasedatelev, Anton, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Gnusov, Ivan and Askitopoulos, Alexis (2022) Data for Engineering photon statistics in a spinor polariton condensate. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2098 [Dataset]

Baryshev, Stepan, Zasedatelev, Anton, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Gnusov, Ivan, Askitopoulos, Alexis and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2022) Engineering Photon Statistics in a Spinor Polariton Condensate. Physical Review Letters, 128 (8), [087402]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.087402).

Harrison, Stella, Louise, Sigurdsson, Helgi, Alyatkin, Sergey, Toepfer, Julian, Dominic and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2022) Solving the max-3-cut problem with coherent networks. Physical Review Applied, 17 (2), [024063]. (doi:10.1103/PhysRevApplied.17.024063).

Aristov, Denis, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2022) Screening nearest-neighbor interactions in networks of exciton-polariton condensates through spin orbit coupling. Physical Review B, 105 (15), 155306.

Aristov, Denis and Sigurdsson, Helgi (2022) Data for Screening nearest-neighbor interactions in networks of exciton-polariton condensates through spin orbit coupling. University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2157 [Dataset]

Sigurdsson, Helgi (2022) Data to support the article "Spontaneous formation of time-periodic vortex cluster in nonlinear fluids of light". University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2219 [Dataset]

Sitnik, Kirill, Alyatkin, Sergey, Toepfer, Julian, Gnusov, Ivan, Cookson, Tamsin, Sigurdsson, Helgi and Lagoudakis, Pavlos (2022) Spontaneous formation of time-periodic vortex cluster in nonlinear fluids of light. Physical Review Letters.

Sigurdsson, Helgi, Gnusov, Ivan, Alyatkin, Sergey, Pickup, Lucinda M, Gippius, N.A. and Askitopoulos, Alexis (2022) Data to support the article "Persistent self-induced Larmor precession evidenced through periodic revivals of coherence". University of Southampton doi:10.5258/SOTON/D2350 [Dataset]

Contact

Telephone: +44 (0) 23 8059 7485062329

Email: h.sigurdsson@soton.ac.uk

Share this profile FacebookTwitterWeibo

Pages