• Read about our latest research, public engagement and physics news in our Spring 2026 Newsletter or join as a Friend of the Salam Centre.
  • Or dive even deeper into the state-of-the-art and fundamental questions we are exploring on our Research page,
  • And follow our public outreach and media activities on our Engagement page.
  • Our most recent news and updates, as they unfold, are below.

 

 

Other news and updates from the Centre

Faculty Position in GWs

We seek an outstanding academic to join us as an Assistant or Associate Professor in Gravitational Wave Physics.

World Scientific offers free access to Salam’s works

Explore a collection of books and articles following a new initiative with WSPC.

Welcome to our new Kibble Fellows

We are delighted to welcome Bobby Acharya, Christophe Galfard and Arshia Momeni as our new Kibble Fellows.

Other news and updates from the Centre

Remembering Tom Kibble

A decade after his passing on June 2, 2016, we honor Sir Tom Kibble’s enduring legacy in theoretical physics. His insight, into both our understanding of the Universe and of life, continues to inspire generations.

Spring 2026 Salam Centre Newsletter

Read more about the Centre's fresh insights into causality bounds in cosmology, chiral bosons on Riemann surfaces, our quests for multi-gravitons and our Alumni explorations into the wilderness.

Other news and updates from the Centre

Celebrating a century of Professor Abdus Salam

Thursday 29th January marked the centennial of Professor Abdus Salam (1926-1996), one of the most influential theoretical physicists of the 20th Century and a defining figure in 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s history.

Professor Claudia de Rham appointed fellow of National Maths Academy

Many congratulations to Claudia de Rham on being appointed as an inaugural Fellow of the new National Academy for Mathematical Sciences.

Professor Arkady Tseytlin elected as FRS

Many congratulations to Arkady Tseytlin for being elected as a new Fellow of the Royal Society for his pioneering work in string theory.

Celebrating Profs.Carrillo González, Jiang and Zhong

Congratulations to Prof. Carrillo González for her new appointment in Southampton, Prof. Jiang for a joint position at SIMIS & Fudan and to Prof. Zhong for his position at the Beijing Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Congratulations to Zihan Wang

Congratulations to Zihan Wang for winning third prize at the Postgraduate Poster presenting her remarkable new results on the S-matrix for spinning strings (see 2505.20262).

Peter Lindsay Memorial Lecture

Join Claudia de Rham for the 2025 Lecture on The Secrets of Gravity at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø on June 11 – free & open to all

Other news and updates from the Centre

Shai Chester awarded ERC Starting Grant

Congratulations to Shai Chester on his award for research in "Non-perturbative Conformal Field Theory"

Salam essay contest

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 Salam Essay Contest

Seminars

All seminars
  • Event
  • Seminar

– BST

String theory seminar: Alessandro Georgoudis
Huxley Building, South Kensington Campus
  • Event
  • Seminar

– BST

String theory seminar: Andrea Antinucci
Huxley Building, South Kensington Campus
  • Event
  • Seminar

– BST

TRIANGLE seminar: King’s College London
King's College London, Strand, London

Conferences, Workshops & Summer Schools

The Salam Centre hosts major theoretical physics meetings, bringing together European and international research communities. In the past six months alone, over 500 theoretical physics experts from around the world have visited the Centre for dedicated events.

News and events prior to 2020

News
  • Kelly Stelle has been awarded the  from the Institute of Physics for his work on fundamental physics.
  •  announced as the winner (Laureate) in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category, of the highly prestigious 
  •  at IoP: a collaboration between artist and filmmaker Grace Weir and theoretical physicists David Berman and Fay Dowker.
  • Prof. Kelly Stelle has been awarded the  from the Institute of Physics for his work on fundamental physics.
  • UK lead partner in 
  •  is recipient of the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category.
  • is joint recipient of the
  • Prof. Mike Duff has been awarded the from the Institute of Physics
  • Advanced ERC Grant, "Gauge theory - string theory duality: maximally supersymmetric case and beyond", Tseytlin
  • Advanced ERC Grant, "Gravity, black holes and strongly coupled quantum matter", Gauntlett
  • Consolidator ERC Grant, "Massive Gravity and Cosmology”, de Rham
  • EPSRC Programme Grant, "New Geometric structures from string theory", Hull et al
  • STFC Consolidated Grant, "M-theory, cosmology and quantum field theory", Waldram et al
  • Scott Melville awarded the best PhD talk prize at the 
  •  is joint recipient of the 
  • Prof Mike Duff is joint recipient of the 2018 .
  •  has been honoured in the  for outstanding young scientists.
  • Congratulations to Prof Mike Duff who is the 2017 recipient of the  from the Institute of Physics
  • Shuang-Yong Zhou awarded  for position as full professor at University of Science and Technology of China
  • Prof Carl Bender wins 
  • Claudia de Rham awarded a Consolidator ERC Grant, 2017-2022
  • STFC Consolidated Grant, "M-theory, cosmology and quantum field theory", Gauntlett et al
  • We are pleased to welcome two new staff members to the group, Dr Claudia De Rham and Dr Andrew Tolley. 
  • We are very sad to announce the death of Professor Tom Kibble CBE FRS who passed away on Thursday 2nd June 2016. See our page of reflections on Tom Kibble's contributions to the Theoretical Physics group and the wider academic scientific community. 
  • Congratulations to Prof Fay Dowker (General Relativity course) and Dr Tom Griffin (academic tutoring) who have received teaching awards from the Faculty based on our students' assessments.
  • Jul 2015 Alex Anastasiou was awarded the P.M.S. Blackett Diploma for a presentation titled "Gravity as the square of Yang-Mills" at the Majorana Centre, Erice
  • Joao Magueijo, Giulia Gubitosi and co-authors Giovanni Amelino-Camelia and Michele Arzano have been awarded second prize in the 2015
  • Tom Kibble  June 2014
  • Joao Magueijo awarded Leverhulme Research Fellowship 2014-2016
  • Leo Hughes awarded Julian Schwinger prize for best student presentation at , Erice, Sicily Aug 2014
  • Jerome Gauntlett awarded an Advanced ERC Grant, 2014-2019
  • Aug 2013: Tom Kibble awarded the 
  • Jul 2013: Tom Kibble awarded an 
  • June 2013 Carlo Contaldi and Arttu Rajantie have been promoted to Professor and Toby Wiseman has been promoted to Reader
  • July 2013 Leo Hughes awarded a poster prize at the Graduate School Symposium. 
  • June 2013 Leo Hughes and Michel Buck awarded prizes for posters in the Postgraduate Symposium. 
  • May 2013: Mike Duff gave the Schroedinger Lecture at West University of Timisoara, Romania.
  • March 2013 Chris Hull (PI), Jerome Gauntlett, Amihay Hanany, Daniel Waldram awarded a major Programme Grant from EPSRC "New Geometric Structures from String Theory".
  • Mar 2013: 
  • Jan 2013: Michael Duff involved in 
  • Dec 2012: December 2012: Winton PhD Prize awarded to  and 
  • Nov 2012: 
  • Jul 2012: Tom Kibble awarded a Royal Society 
  • Jun 2012: Toby Wiseman awarded a Rector's Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • May 2012: Arttu Rajantie joins the  experiment
  • Apr 2012: Chris Hull elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society
  • Jan 2012: Noppadol Meekareeya awarded the Winton Capital PhD prize
  • Dec 2011: Arkady Tseytlin awarded a prestigious ERC Advanced Grant
  • Dec 2011: Dr Varqa Abyaneh has made a generous donation to support the activities of the Theoretical Physics Group
  • Dec 2011: Jonathan Halliwell awarded an EPSRC grant
  • Sep 2011: Fay Dowker promoted to Professor
  • Jul 2011:  awarded to Chris Isham
  • Jul 2011:  awarded to Arkady Tseytlin
  • May 2011: Faculty Teaching Award given to James Yearsley 
  • Jan 2011:  
  • Sep 2010: 
  • Oct 2009: 
Events
  • , 23rd European String Workshop, April 9-13, 2018, King's College London
  • Jerome Gauntlett gave a on 
  • Meeting on  to celebrate Chris Hull's 60th Birthday, 28th-29th April 2017, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø
  • Fay Dowker gave a Friends of 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College lecture on , 21st March 2017
  • Kelly Stelle gave the , receipient of the Institute of Physics Isaac Newton Medal.
  • The theory group hosted an amazingly popular public talk on  on 17th October 2016  .  Thanks to everyone who helped with the event.
  •  with  in the Great Hall (23rd November 2015).
  • (IGST 2015), 13 July - 17 July 2015, London, King's College, UK
  • . Chris Isham at 70. Sep 27-28 2014
  • COST workshop Foundations of Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Gravity, Apr 24-25 2014
  • , 13 March 2013
  • , 20-21 September 2012
  • , July 2-3 2012
  • , 23-24 April 2012
  • , 10-11 January 2011
  • , 20-24 September 2010
  • , 28 Sep - 2 Oct 2009
  • , 1-2 April 2009
  • , 24-25 April 2008
  • , 9 January 2008
  • , 7 July 2007 
  • Symposium, 2-7 July 2007
  • , 26-29 March 2007
In the media
  • "", New Scientist Instant Expert with contribution from Mike Duff.
  • Claudia de Rham’s research at 51³Ô¹ÏÍø College was profiled in a  broadcasted in Swiss National TV evening news
  • Joao Magueijo’s work on testing Variable Speed of Light models was discussed in the New Scientist and the Guardian
  •  was recently profiled in ‌
  • Work by Dr Steffen Gielen from the Theory Group on The Big Bounce, an alternative to The Big Bang view of cosmology, has been discussed in , in the and , as well as with .
  • Several members of staff talked about the recent direct detection of gravitational waves:-
    Fay Dowker on the  (around 2:55:00 into the programme) on Radio 4, 12th February 2016.
    Toby Wiseman on Jerome Gauntlett on  (from -50:30)
    Arttu Rajantie on several local news stations:
    •  (from 02:17:20)
    •  (from 01:26:15)
    • BBC Radio Shropshire (from 01:53:07)
    •  (from 00:46:17)
    •  (from 01:39:37)
    •  (from 02:22:02)
    •  (from 01:09:50)
  • Fay Dowker was on the  show on Radio 4 as part of a programme celebrating the centenary of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity - check out the  of the show (broadcast 8th December).
  • Toby Wiseman describing  (also in the ) and 
  • More on GR by Fay Dowker, Chris Hull and Toby Wiseman 
  • Joao Magueijo was on , Xmas 2015
  • 2015 Arttu Rajantie was on the BBC News Channel and BBC World News on Sunday 5 April 2015 talking about the LHC restart and the MoEDAL experiment which is searching for magnetic monopoles. A covered the demonstration by Arttu and others from the group about this experiment at the in July 2015. Another summary of this also appeared in the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Reporter.
  • 2015 Joao Magueijo was "Editor in Chief for a Day" for Portugese newspaper
  • 2014 Jerome Gauntlett was the Theoretical Physics Consultant for the film The Theory of Everything, 2014
  • June 2014 Toby Wiseman appeared on  discussing black holes
  • Oct 2013 Jerome Gauntlett and Tom Kibble  on the Higgs boson
  • Oct 2013 Jerome Gauntlett and Tom Kibble  on the Higgs boson 
  • Tim Evans's work profiled in - Dec 2013
  • Oct 2013 Jerome Gauntlett and Tom Kibble  on the Higgs boson
  • Oct 2013: Joao Magueijo's and Ali Mozaffari's work on MOND profiled in 
  • Aug 2013: Tom Kibble interviewed in the 
  • Jul 2013: Fay Dowker in  on BBC Radio 4
  • Jun 2013: Mike Duff debates the limits of physics in 
  • Apr 2013: Jerome Gauntlett on the Kibble Fest in 
  • Jul 2012: Tom Kibble on the Higgs boson in 
  • Jul 2012: Jerome Gauntlett on the Higgs boson and Tom Kibble, , , , 
  • Apr 2012: Tim Evans writing in The Guardian on 
  • Mar 2012: Mike Duff writing in  on EPSRC's Impact Agenda
  • Mar 2012: Jerome Gauntlett was on a  discussing physics, hippies and creativity
  • Mar 2012: Tom Kibble profiled in 
  • Jan 2012: Fay Dowker interviewed by  for Stephen Hawking's 70th birthday
  • Dec 2011: Jerome Gauntlett interviewed on  and Sky News about the Higgs boson and an 51³Ô¹ÏÍø podcast can be found 
  • Dec 2011 Tom Kibble profiled in the 
  • Oct 2011: Daniel Bedingham's work profiled in 
  • Oct 2011: Jerome Gauntlett's work on AdS/CMT in 
  • Oct 2011: Fay Dowker, Mike Duff and Joao Magueijo interviewed on BBC2's Programme, aired on Oct 19 2011.
  • 2011 Carlo Contaldi interviewed about the OPERA results for , ,, , and
  • 2 September 2010: Jerome Gauntlett on Channel 4 News
  • 13 March 2010: Joao Magueijo in  (CBC radio one - )
  • 9 March 2010: Joao Magueijo in  (BBC Two)
  • 2 December 2008: Fay Dowker in  (BBC Two - ) 
  • 21 February 2008: Fay Dowker in "In Our Time" on The Multiverse, BBC Radio 4