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Dr Ömer Gürdoğan

Stephen Hawking Fellow

Southampton’s STAG Research Centre is ideal for Dr Ömer Gürdoğan, whose research is in the space between maths and physics. The University is also perfectly placed for his other passion – sailing!

The research environment at Southampton is really productive. My research is in the space between maths and physics, so the STAG Research Centre is a huge asset for me.”

Dr Gürdoğan will return to the University in January 2021 as one of the first winners of a prestigious Stephen Hawking Fellowship from UK Research and Innovation for his theoretical particle physics work, developing a modern description of how nature works at microscopic scales.

His area of focus will be ‘scattering amplitudes’ in Quantum Field Theory. These are the quantities that predict the probabilities of the interactions of elementary particles in nature. Research in scattering amplitudes is a very active area, with a potential to revolutionise the way we formulate particle physics.

Dr Gürdoğan explained why Southampton’s is the ideal location for his work.

The STAG (Southampton Theory Astrophysics and Gravity) Research Centre brings together mathematicians, physicists and astronomers. The centre runs regular seminars and workshops.

Dr Gürdoğan added: “The Southampton High Energy Physics group is also a very diverse one, and the interaction amongst its members is valuable. You get to see the subject from different points of view and that can be very useful in shaping your own research vision.”

He was previously at Southampton from 2016 to 2019 as a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, before leaving to work at the Mathematical Institute at the University of Oxford.

Southampton has one additional attraction for Dr Gürdoğan. He is a keen sailor and regularly takes part in yacht races. “I can’t wait to make the most of the unique yachting scene in the Solent area again,” he commented.