Physics at the University of Aberdeen has a long and storied history dating back to the foundation of the University in 1495.
Some staff have their offices within the Institute for Mathematics in the Fraser Noble Building. We have links with departments based on the University's Foresterhill campus, so some staff regularly spend time there as well.
Our facilities include an observatory and research and teaching laboratories, including computer laboratories.
The Department of Physics has existed in its current form since the early 1990s. Before this, however, "Natural Philosophy" was taught at the University of Aberdeen (post-1860) and its two predecessor institutions (pre-1860) all the way back to the original founding of King's College in 1495.
Our most illustrious staff include
- James Clerk Maxwell, widely regarded as one of the greatest scientists of all time due to his revolutionary work on electromagnetic theory, as well as optics and many other fields.
- RV Jones, Assistant Director of Intelligence (Science) in the UK Air Ministry during World War II.
- GP Thomson, who won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering electron diffraction.
One other Nobel Prize winner and several Fellows of the Royal Society have been associated with Physics at Aberdeen.