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The School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds, UK, is a part of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. According to the Research Excellence Framework (REF), 99% of research activity submitted was rated as “world-leading” or “internationally excellent”. According to The Guardian University league tables, the physics courses at the University of Leeds are consistently ranked within the top 20 when compared to other courses in the United Kingdom.

The school originated from the Yorkshire College of Science in 1874, which eventually became the University of Leeds in 1904. One notable figure of the school is Sir William Henry Bragg. Bragg was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915, along with his son Lawrence Bragg for their work on X-ray crystallography.

Research groups
The School of Physics and Astronomy is comprised of six main research groups:

Sir William Henry Bragg Building
The School of Physics and Astronomy is based in the Sir William Henry Bragg Building, named after Sir William Henry Bragg. The building is equipped with research laboratories, computer suites, teaching spaces, and other specialised facilities. The Bragg building houses the school as well as the School of Computing. The building connects to the Universities' Electronic and Electrical Engineering Building, Mechanical Engineering Building, and Civil Engineering Building, promoting collaboration with the schools.

Construction of the Bragg building started in 2017 and finished in early 2021. An exhibition detailing Bragg and his discoveries was hosted at the Parkinson Building leading up to the grand opening. The grand opening was held on June 7, 2022, were members of the Bragg family gave a speech on the life of Sir William Henry Bragg. Prior to the opening of the Bragg building, the school was based in the E.C. Stoner Building named after Edmund Clifton Stoner.

Notable faculty
The school employs over 75 academic and research staff:


 * Lorna Dougan, EPSRC Fellow and an EPSRC Public Engagement Champion, Professor of Physics. Dougan specialises in biomechanics and water structure. The British Biophysical Society awarded Dougan the BBS Elspeth Garman Prize for Public Engagement in 2022 and the BBS Young Investigator award in 2018. The University of Leeds, in partnership with Athena SWAN awarded Dougan the Water Woman Award for Research Excellence in 2020.
 * Sarah Harris, Associate Professor of Biological Physics. Harris specialises in biomolecular simulation, biological physics and DNA topology. In 2020, Harris was appointed Chair of the EPSRC Computational Collaborative Project in Biomolecular Simulation (CCPBioSim).
 * Peter Hine, Associate Professor. Hine specialises in single polymer composites and multi-phase composites. He worked on the invention and development of single polymer composites, which are used in Curv (website) and Samsonite products.
 * Melvin Hoare, Professor of Astrophysics. Hoare specialises in star formation. He was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) Education Award: Higher Education for his work on the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) project.
 * Cliff Jones, Professor of Physics, EPSRC Fellow of Advanced Manufacturing. Jones specialises in soft matter and liquid crystal materials. In 2017, Jones was awarded the Katharine Burr Blodgett Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics (IOP) for his work in liquid crystal displays and founding DisplayData (website) (Formerly known as ZBD Solutions).  Jones is also a founder of Dynamic Vision Systems.
 * Robert Purdy, lecturer and Admissions Tutor. Purdy specialises in theoretical particle physics and physics education.
 * Mike Ries, Professor. Ries specialises in soft matter. He was awarded the Phillips Award in 2021 by the Institute of Physics for his work across decades of outreach programmes in physics education.
 * Mark Thompson, head of school, Professor. Thompson specialises in astrophysics.
 * Alan Watson, Emeritus Professor and Visiting Professor of Physics. Watson specialises in cosmic rays and science education. In 2011, Watson was awarded the Faraday Medal by the Institute of Physics (IOP) for founding the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina, and decades of research on cosmic rays.

History
The origins of the School of Physics and Astronomy can be traced back to the opening of the Yorkshire College of Science in 1874. The University of Leeds' courses in physical sciences and engineering have a long history of emphasising the practical applications of their subjects. The Yorkshire College was established to research fibres, textiles and related technologies, which could help the UK's cloth trade compete with Europe's. On opening, Arthur Rucker was appointed as Professor of Physics and Mathematics and was the first to teach physics at the Yorkshire College. Following the death of Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish in 1882, the Yorkshire College established the Cavendish Chair of Physics and its professorship, of which Rucker became the first occupant.

The University of Leeds opened in 1904 after the Yorkshire college (at the time affiliated with the Victoria University) was granted Charter to be an independent institution by King Edward VII. With the Charter came additional funding and the University brought on William Bragg as Cavendish Professor of Physics in 1909, succeeding William Stroud. Bragg and his son, Lawrence Bragg, founded x-ray crystallography and invented the x-ray spectrometer. Both Bragg and his son were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1915 for this new avenue of science and method of analysis. After Bragg's departure from the University in 1915, the Cavendish Chair remained vacant for nearly four years.

Richard Whiddington became the next Cavendish Professor of Physics in 1919. Whiddington dealt with influxes of students into the University after World War 1 and World War 2. During World War 1, Whiddington worked on behalf of the Royal Flying Corps on radiotelegraphy. It is possible that he was the first to give firing instructions from the air to ground batteries. Between the wars, Whiddington was mainly occupied with teaching students, but also studied energy distributions of electrons ejected from x-rays. He developed what he called the ultra-micrometre, which could measure displacements down to the order of a tenth of a nanometre. In World War 2, Whiddington served the Royal Air Force, the Admiralty, and the Royal Navy in administration and scientific roles. For his work in the wars, Whiddington left with the title Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).

During Whiddington's Cavendish Professorship in 1939, a second chair (theoretical physics) was instituted, to which Edmund Stoner was immediately appointed. In 1951, Stoner succeeded Whiddington as Cavendish Professor of Physics. Stoner's work is notable in multiple disciplines of physics. In 1929, he discovered the limiting mass of a white dwarf star (later known as the Chandrasekhar limit), developed the Stoner model of ferromagnetism, and made significant contributions to the electron configurations in the periodic table. In 1962, Stoner's work in theoretical physics and in the University as a whole, led to one of the largest buildings on campus being named after him, the E.C. Stoner Building. The E.C. Stoner Building was home to the School of Physics and Astronomy, the School of Computing, and the School of Food Science and Nutrition, until the Sir William Henry Bragg Building was opened in 2022.

In 2022, much of the modern research and developments at the School of Physics and Astronomy continue to have strong ties to industry, especially through material science.

Cavendish Chair of Physics
The Cavendish Chair of Physics is an honoured position in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds. Occupying the chair comes with a professorship, named Cavendish Professor of Physics, not to be confused with the Cambridge Cavendish Professor of Physics. The chair was established following the murder in 1882 of Lord Frederick Cavendish, member of parliament for the West-Yorkshire region and council member of the University of Leeds.

As of 2022, there have been 10 Cavendish Professors of Physics in the school:
 * Arthur Rucker, Appointed in 1876. Rucker was the first Cavendish chair at the Yorkshire College, Leeds. His research at the University involved surface tension phenomena and thin films.
 * William Stroud, Appointed in 1885. Stroud, along with Archibald Barr, formed Barr and Stroud after designing rangefinders for the Department of Admiralty. Stroud produced early measurements of the mechanical equivalent of heat.
 * Sir William Henry Bragg, Appointed in 1909. Bragg founded the science of X-ray crystallography and invented the X-ray spectrometer.
 * Richard Whiddington, Appointed in 1919. Whiddington discovered relations between energy of ejected electrons and x-ray wavelengths.
 * Edmund Stoner, Appointed in 1951. Stoner developed the collective electron theory of ferromagnetism and discovered the limiting mass of a white dwarf star (later known as the Chandrasekhar limit).
 * John Wilson, Appointed in 1963. Wilson conducted extensive research in air showers and cosmic rays. He introduced more projects relating to nuclear physics to the school.
 * Sydney Dugdale, Appointed in 1976. Dugdale made many contributions to low temperature physics and condensed matter physics. This included studies of entropy and electrical properties at low temperature.
 * Ian Ward, Appointed in 1987. Ward developed comprehensive methodology for investigating the properties of solid polymers. He documented many mechanical properties of polymer materials.
 * Gwynne Morgan, Appointed in 1994. Morgan conducts research in many areas in condensed matter physics, including applying the Hall effect and electron transport simulations to nanostructures.
 * Helen Gleeson, Appointed in 2014. Gleeson is the Head of the Soft Matter Physics Group and was the former Head of School of the School of Physics and Astronomy. A key area of her research is optical applications of liquid crystals.