London and South East
Events - London Centre
Meetings will be held on Wednesday evenings at 6.30 p.m. at the Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London W1B 1NT. Free coffee from 6.00 p.m., free wine and light refreshments after the lecture, but if you wish to come to a lecture please notify Londonsoutheast@physics.org, as some of our recent lectures have been over-full.
Wednesday 1 October
Fusion power: the era of burning plasmas
Prof. Steve Cowley, Director of UKAEA Culham Laboratory
In a decade, the international fusion experiment ITER will start operating in the south of France. This historic experiment will generate up to 500 MW of fusion power and provide a proof of principle for fusion energy. Fusion has the potential to provide a large fraction of our energy for millions of years. Prof. Cowley will describe the scientific progress in fusion – from Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington’s prophetic predictions in 1920 to the remarkable results that have led to ITER. He will outline the challenging physics problems that must be solved to make fusion power a commercial option, and worldwide efforts to find their solution.
Wednesday 15 October
Misunderstanding murder: forensic science - about the reality behind the TV myths
Dr Mark Johnson, Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent
If you have ever watched any of the current crop of “CSI” type TV shows you will know that all crimes are solved in 50 minutes by the application of super high-tech forensic science. Unfortunately, reality is nowhere near as fast or glamorous as our Hollywood heroes depict. The speaker had 20 years’ special operations experience with various police forces before moving to his present position.
Wednesday 29 October
Neutrinos
Prof. David Wark, Imperial College
Wednesday 12 November
Photons
Prof. Ian A Walmsley, Hooke Professor of Experimental Physics and Head of Atomic and Laser Physics, University of Oxford
This talk will be followed by the Branch Annual Dinner, details of which may be found on page 00 and at london.iop.org.
Wednesday 26 November
Fitness-for-service of welded structures
Dr Isabel Hadley, TWI Limited
(Joint meeting with the Welding and Joining Society)
Manufacture by welding almost invariably introduces defects such as cracks and porosity. For safety-critical items such as aircraft and pipelines, the failure of a component due to the presence of a flaw can threaten human life, as well as having severe economic and environmental consequences. Some flaws, however, are harmless, as they will not lead to failure during the lifetime of the component. A fitness-for-service (FFS) procedure allows flaws to be evaluated consistently and objectively, using fracture mechanics principles. This talk will review the major FFS procedures and give examples of how they can be applied in practice.
Wednesday 10 December
Details to be announced.
2009
Wednesday 28 January
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 11 February
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 25 February
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 11 March
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 25 March
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 1 April
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 29 April
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 13 May
Details to be announced.
Wednesday 3 June
Details to be announced.
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