Challoner Student Gains Acclaim from Leading Professor

Alex Stewart, year 11, has recently had an exchange of emails with a highly eminent physicist, Professor Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, regarding university courses. Alex's question to the professor is one of only four chosen to be featured on the Institute of Physics' website.

Professor Bell-Burnell is regarded as one of the greatest living physicists and was recently featured in the BBC's Beautiful Mind Series.

Alex's question was... "There are lots of different university physics courses, some of which include astronomy. Can I please ask what you think would be the best combination of physics subjects to study and the best branch of astrophysics to specialise in?"

Professor Bell-Burnell replied... "If you are interested in astronomy then do seriously consider studying it as part of a university degree. You should look for degrees called xxx and astronomy/astrophysics or xxx with astronomy/astrophysics. The 'and' degrees should have a higher proportion of the second subject than the 'with' degrees. Alternatively you may find a physics degree, called a physics degree, where you have quite a bit of choice (especially in the later years) and where there are a good number of astro modules on offer. You'll need to do quite a bit of exploring on university web sites.

The xxx in the combined degrees could be physics (probably the most common) or maths or computer science or statistics or electrical/electronic engineering, or space science, or.......!

A couple of warnings. Astronomy is a high tech branch of modern physics. It is a good deal more than looking through a telescope at craters on the moon and saying 'Aahh!'! You need maths, in particular. And in spite of astrophysics being a high tech branch of modern physics, employers don't know this and think you've spent your time looking at craters on the moon and saying 'Aahh’! So I don't recommend doing just astronomy - you'll have an even harder time getting a job afterwards.

Physics (astrophysics) degrees everywhere should be broadly the same, but with a bit of a bias towards the research interests of the lecturers in that department. This will most affect what projects are on offer. You may be able to work the bias out by looking at what research groups there are in the department. However, there are much more important factors to consider when choosing a university - I wouldn't normally expect a student to be overly concerned about what branches of physics or astronomy to specialise in at first degree level - that can come later after a good, broad-based degree.

Jocelyn"

Richard Challoner School

Headteacher: Mr. T. Cahill

Sunday, 5th February. 2012

Challoner Student Gains Acclaim from Leading Professor

Contact Details

Upcoming Events