1 00:00:15,370 --> 00:00:21,430 I want you to stop by to say a few words about the physics department before we go on to prime time. 2 00:00:21,430 --> 00:00:25,180 So my name is Ashok Sun, head of physics at almost every day, 3 00:00:25,180 --> 00:00:31,540 I've asked whether I like my job and actually it really is on the reason it's pronounced because this department is astonishing. 4 00:00:31,540 --> 00:00:35,290 And one of the things that we have been doing over the last year has been developing 5 00:00:35,290 --> 00:00:40,330 a strategic plan for to search for education for our outreach programme, 6 00:00:40,330 --> 00:00:46,350 activities for diversity and inclusion for everything that we do with the goal to screen everyone in the world. 7 00:00:46,350 --> 00:00:52,150 We're already in the top 10 in every metric, but we aim to be better than that. 8 00:00:52,150 --> 00:00:58,690 And so the key part of that was developing a plan for where we're going and then holding it up to scrutiny. 9 00:00:58,690 --> 00:01:06,040 And so envoy invited to a group of very distinguished physicists from across the board from both both America and Europe, 10 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:12,970 including such schools as Princeton and through Chicago, and closer to home places like Cambridge in the home. 11 00:01:12,970 --> 00:01:17,200 So they came here to judge what we're doing. 12 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:25,560 And so they describe every student we get in the process of preparing for that, and they taught us a great deal about ourselves. 13 00:01:25,560 --> 00:01:33,540 I'm quite impressed, not the point. It's not the attempt to pressure ourselves, we have to get other people to verify that. 14 00:01:33,540 --> 00:01:41,280 So these people looked and it was on the 17th and 18th of February, two very intense days. 15 00:01:41,280 --> 00:01:49,890 At the end of that, they produced a draught report. The final report won't be ready until March or so, but they shared with us their main conclusions. 16 00:01:49,890 --> 00:01:58,500 And so first, I found that in every area in which we're engaged in research, which is the most reported, we are world class. 17 00:01:58,500 --> 00:02:08,080 And education, both undergraduate master's course and in the education of our graduate students, the world class. 18 00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:18,880 And innovation and enterprise that needs to spin out dramatically improved from a few years ago in our outreach activities, 19 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,170 in our alumni activities were amongst the best that they've ever seen. 20 00:02:23,170 --> 00:02:27,100 And many of them said they'd learn a lot from this review, 21 00:02:27,100 --> 00:02:33,280 and they're going to take back some of the things they've seen to Princeton and to Berkeley, out to Chicago. 22 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:42,570 And perhaps even some of the very, very happy with they did point out that there were some things that could be improved. 23 00:02:42,570 --> 00:02:47,850 So one of them was that they marvelled at the big problem. It's absolutely spectacular, it's on the launchpad. 24 00:02:47,850 --> 00:02:55,470 It's enabled us to hire fantastic physicists as vacancies have become available or the opportunities arise, and we continue to do so. 25 00:02:55,470 --> 00:03:02,190 But now that you have something as beautiful as the big crops that can support such amazing science both above ground below ground, 26 00:03:02,190 --> 00:03:11,100 you need to look at the rest of your estate. And when you do this, it's far from being at the quality of the big four, if not remotely close. 27 00:03:11,100 --> 00:03:15,660 And so one of the things that this report is going to recommend is it's this university 28 00:03:15,660 --> 00:03:21,510 works with its alumni to invest more in the physics department to upgrade our buildings. 29 00:03:21,510 --> 00:03:24,340 And so we're very, very pleased by that, of course. 30 00:03:24,340 --> 00:03:31,890 But another thing that they said is that even though you do outstanding research and your students are a great driver of that research, 31 00:03:31,890 --> 00:03:36,470 along with your postdocs and your faculty supported by the staff. 32 00:03:36,470 --> 00:03:43,510 That the number of students that you have, even though is 400 and what graduate students, which sounds like a lot. 33 00:03:43,510 --> 00:03:52,360 It's not competitive with the truck schools around the clock, and what they mean by that is the typical tuck school has full students faculty. 34 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:58,870 No. We have three. And so they urge us to increase the number of graduate students. 35 00:03:58,870 --> 00:04:04,720 They know that the backdrop to that is that if you look at our current cohort of 401. 36 00:04:04,720 --> 00:04:12,340 The group of truly tons of people that half of them are not receiving support from the UK government, the traditional route of student trips, 37 00:04:12,340 --> 00:04:22,210 half of them are finding support from other institutions around the globe and from private individuals, including our alumni. 38 00:04:22,210 --> 00:04:26,650 People like James Dodd, people like Marty look, people like Nick Greenwood. 39 00:04:26,650 --> 00:04:33,960 People like Simon Harrison. People like Richard Golding and people like all of you that supported Oxfam. 40 00:04:33,960 --> 00:04:39,540 They urged all of you to continue to do this because if we are to be the number one physics department in the world, 41 00:04:39,540 --> 00:04:45,480 we have to continue to attract top students from around the globe and often we are turning 42 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:50,580 away students every year that apply to us in vastly larger numbers that we can take. 43 00:04:50,580 --> 00:04:56,160 And where do those students go? That doesn't come to us. They go to NYC and they go to Princeton or even the Cambridge. 44 00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:04,150 So we have to be able to offer more opportunities, and we'd like all of you to help us in any way you can. 45 00:05:04,150 --> 00:05:09,690 Now there's lots of other exciting activities apart from some of the morning symbolic visits over the next week. 46 00:05:09,690 --> 00:05:14,730 One of them is this, which is the 80th anniversary of the French club's memorandum. 47 00:05:14,730 --> 00:05:24,510 And so is a public lecture here on the force of elections, whether sleep from five to 6:30 p.m. and we would love it. 48 00:05:24,510 --> 00:05:27,690 If you would like to call it, please sign up at the Eventbrite page. 49 00:05:27,690 --> 00:05:34,530 And one more thing I'd like to say before I close this is possibly my favourite alumni ever. 50 00:05:34,530 --> 00:05:42,000 And I was placed alone today. But not only does it always happen, but it's soda and rock of time just three days. 51 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:46,830 But putting up with that rock page and you were actually signing up, I now it will come. 52 00:05:46,830 --> 00:05:50,460 So despite the challenges the world's facing at the moment, we will break the drought and come here. 53 00:05:50,460 --> 00:05:57,630 So thank you for joining us. And I'm turning over the judge Walker, the head of the sub department of Theoretical Physics. 54 00:05:57,630 --> 00:06:01,920 Thank.