Space is the Place for Professorial Talk

8th May 2015

A University Pro Vice Chancellor will set his sights on the universe when he gives his professorial lecture later this month.

Professor Roger Eccleston, Pro Vice Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Computing, Engineering and Science at Sheffield Hallam University, will draw on his experience working on major projects including the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to examine so-called 'Big Science' and what it can tell us about the universe. Drawing inspiration from the discovery of the Higgs boson particle in 2012, Professor Eccleston will also look at materials that are part of our everyday lives and tell us what they reveal. He will give his professorial lecture, which celebrates an academic's career in front of an invited audience, on Tuesday 12 May at 6pm in the University's Stoddart Building. Tickets are free but must be booked in advance from http://www.shu.ac.uk/events/corporate-events/ProfessorRogerEccleston.html. Professor Eccleston said: "Sophisticated research facilities allow us see beyond the visible spectrum to, for example, witness and understand the birth of stars and to observe the structure and behaviour of materials at anatomic level. "It is possible to recreate the conditions that existed within a billionth of a second of the Big Bang and study the first moments of the Universe. "These research facilities are often big, usually expensive and always technically complex. In this lecture I will be considering what 'Big Science' research conducted using large-scale facilities like particle colliders, neutron sources or space-based telescopes, can tell us about our Universe and, on a more prosaic level, some of the materials that are part of our everyday lives." Professor Eccleston was formerly Director of Technology at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC). The STFC Technology Unit provided engineering and technology development and support to major UK science projects including the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, large scale neutron and photon research facilities and ground and space-based astronomy projects. His research interests include quantum magnetism, materials characterisation and instrument development. He has undertaken advisory roles in the US and Europe and was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Physics in 2007.