Theoretical Nuclear Physics Group

The Theoretical Nuclear Physics Group is part of the Department of Physics, with close ties to the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group. We work at the forefront of nuclear physics research, studying the atomic nucleus with a variety of theoretical methods and seek to answer fundamental questions in physics.

Overview

We work at the forefront of nuclear theoretical physics, developing new tools that guide or complement nuclear experiments. We have strong synergies with the Experimental Nuclear Physics Group at the University of Surrey, as well as with other researchers around the world.

Our work includes fundamental blue-skies research to understand the nature of atomic nuclei; how they react together under the strong nuclear force; how the properties of nuclei arise from the combined properties of the protons and neutrons making them up; and how nuclei are formed in reactions in stars.

Our work also includes more applied research; how nuclear reactions for fusion energy can be harnessed; how understand nuclear structure is important for nuclear security; how nuclear theory links with emerging quantum technologies.

Some of our research is computationally demanding and we exploit in-house high performance computing facilities as well as national resources like Distributed Research utilizing Advanced Computing (DiRAC).

Opportunities

Every year we advertise funded PhD studentships and we welcome enquiries from potential fellowship candidates at any time. Please feel free to send informal inquiries to Dr Paul Stevenson.

Meet our team

Dr Paul Stevenson

Head of the Group

Paul Stevenson studied physics at the University of Oxford, worked for one year at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and has been at the University of Surrey since 2000.  He works on nuclear structure and reaction theory, quantum computation, mathematical and computational physics, and some quantum biology.  Since 2020 he has been an AWE William Penney Fel...

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