Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) declaration
It’s that time of year when we need to gather the records for the declarations under the Chemical Weapons Act to comply with the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
We are legally required to submit a declaration for CWC if we
- produce, process, consume (i.e. use), import or export any quantity of CWC Schedule 2 chemicals
- produce, import or export any quantity of CWC Schedule 3 chemicals
- produce above 200 tonnes of discrete organic chemicals (DOC), or above 30 tonnes of any DOC containing the elements phosphorus, sulphur or flourine (DOC/PSF)
The CWC schedules are on the Departmental safety SharePoint site.
I don’t think we have anything in schedule 1 but please let me know as soon as possible if we do!
Shonah Ion
Christmas Lunch for Physics staff and PG Students
We will be having a Christmas lunch on Wednesday 22nd December at 1300hrs at Greaves Park.
The only way to secure your place is by paying for your lunch in advance when you can give me your menu choices. Please book as soon as you can to avoid disappointment as the venue has an estimated number of people which can only be increased subject to other bookings that they receive in the meantime.
To minimise contact please come and see me alone and with the right money. The prices are two courses for £20.99 or three for £22.99 but if it is easier for you I don’t mind keeping an extra penny as commission 
. I am usually in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
As usual we’ll have mince pies and drinks in the atrium at 1100.
Grainne Wilkinson
External Caterers’ Policy
An External Caterers Policy is in place and has been approved by the university until 31st July 2022. Pls find details below.
The University has taken the decision to restrict the use of catering on campus to only booked and delivered via University Hospitality. Whilst the majority of catering on campus is already undertaken by the Hospitality team, they will be very happy to discuss a range of options and personalisation to enable dietary, cultural, and budgetary needs are met.
The procurement team are working with the Internal Catering team on this and will not authorise payments for any external use without the approval of the Hospitality Department.
Grainne Wilkinson
Searches for Continuous Gravitational Waves from Young Supernova Remnants in the Early Third Observing Run of Advanced LIGO and Virgo
MS Teams event
Monday 29 November 2021
10:00am to 11:00am
Astrophysics webinar
Speaker: Lucy Strang, University of Melbourne
Michael Thompson
Cosmic Inflation and Dark Energy: The key to the origin and fate of our Universe
FAR – Cavendish Colloquium
Wednesday 1 December 2021
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Book Launch – ‘Introduction to Cosmic Inflation and Dark Energy’ by Dr. Konstantinos Dimopoulos, Reader in Physics.
Speaker: Dr. Konstantinos Dimopoulos
Konstantinos Dimopoulos
Title TBC
PHS – Physics C036
Friday 3 December 2021
3:00pm to 4:00pm
Condensed Matter seminar
Speaker: Thomas McGrath (University of Lancaster)
Michael Thompson
Research Software Skills Workshops
We are delighted to announce the start of a new programme of workshops aimed at skills development for Computationally Intensive research, courtesy of our new N8CIR Research Software Engineer Robin Long. All the workshops are designed to help researchers (PhD students and staff) with skills, they need for using and developing software as part of their research.
This terms schedule (starting in week 6) is
Week 8: Version Control with Git
This course introduces the concept of version control and teaches it using Git. If file names such as mycode_version5 and mycode_fixed look familiar to you then you need this course!
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/version-control-with-git-tickets-205538008717
Week 9: Plotting in Python part 2
This is the second part of the introduction to Python course. Here you will learn about how to run the same tasks multiple times with loops; getting your code to run depending on the data with if statements; re-using code with functions and more.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/plotting-and-programming-in-python-part-2-tickets-205548811027
Week 10: Git 2: Sharing your development with others using Github
This course will show you how to take your usage of Git and Github to the next level by harnessing the power of GitHub for collaboration.
Have you ever been confused about how to start a Pull Request or how to fork a repository and merge your changes back. Perhaps you know and want to gain confidence in doing so? This course will teach you how to collaborate using git, and give you an environment in which to practise.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/intermediate-git-sharing-and-collaborating-with-github-tickets-205600756397
Manus Hayne / Robin Long
Chemical Inventory
One of the long standing recommendations from past safety audits was the production of a chemical inventory for the Department. Thanks to efforts by Dr Zhuang & Rupert Prudom we now have an online system for Supervisors to log the chemicals they have in their labs. It is on the Physics SharePoint site Departmental safety section. There are some FAQ’s which hopefully will answer any queries.
Please can all supervisors who have chemicals within their labs log them on this inventory. We would like this to be completed by the end of November. If you do have any questions please get in touch.
Shonah Ion
Dept Safety handbook 2021 edition
It’s that time again to read, mark, learn & inwardly digest the latest edition of the Dept. safety handbook. As always, it’s full of useful links and guidance to keep us all safe.
It can be found on the Dept. SharePoint site in the Departmental safety area under “General”.
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/physics/information/staff/#safety-472462-3
Once read please confirm you have read and understood the contents by either signing the cover sheet and putting it in Grainne Wilkinson’s pigeon hole or by sending an electronic signed version to her. If you spot any typos or errors please let me know (and claim your prize!).
Shonah Ion