Physics PG-SSLC
Minutes for the meeting held on 12th December 2014, PS0.17
1. Welcome
Apologies: Robin Ball, Valery Nakariakov, David Patchett (Mark Hollands Chairing meeting)
2. Minutes of the last meeting
Everyone is aware that the minutes from the previous meeting are on the PGSSLC website.
3. Warwick turns 50
If any PG students have ideas they should speak to Rudo. Geetha mentions a materials week
to take place during the next year, with opportunities for PG students to be involved. There
could also be a department open day with attendance from PG alumni to talk about their time
at Warwick and following careers. It is agreed that someone needs to be nominated to discuss
with Rudo any PG ideas for Warwick turns 50. Jess Spake has agreed to talk to talk to Rudo
about potential PG input for Warwick turns 50.
4. Physical sciences common room microwave (lack thereof )
Susan confirms the arrival of a new microwave for the common room.
5. PG careers talk/information
Geetha has been in contact with a former PG student who now works in quantitative analysis.
This field has noticed a drop in applicants from British physics PhD graduates. They would
like to remedy this by arranging some kind of talk for PhD students at Warwick. Geetha has
been in contact with Ray Ryan who has organised such events before. David Patchett has
also discussed this with Geetha, and also knows a former PG graduate who is now a patent
attorney and would also be interested in advertising their field. The idea would be that speakers discuss their fields rather than their specific companies/employers. Geetha can suggest
other talk candidates from other areas, e.g. NPL, met office. For a careers event to work there
must be a minimum level of interest. This could be problematic given general student apathy.
David has contacted the student body already and has had 14 people express their interest in
a careers talk being held. At least 20 would be needed to make this viable. This could potentially be remedied by including other departments, e.g. engineering, chemistry, however it
would need to be checked with the University that this does not conflict with other careers
events that may be on offer.
6. SSLC social-sec re-election
Mo wishes to stand down from the role as he is in his final year. He informs us that Oliver
Newell is willing to stand as his replacement. Oliver has since confirmed with the SSLCsecretary that this is the case.
7. Any other business?
PG directory webpage — Andy points out that there are some broken links on the PG directory webpage which have become broken since a layout change. A few people’s names do not
link properly. Also, Andy has a special webpage just for himself. While flattered he would like
to be able disable this. Susan has advised how.
Building work disruptions — Some students have found recent building work to be disruptive to their research. Workers had not been given door codes to rooms they need access to,
and so students have been continuously required to unlock doors to let them in. Susan has
since emailed Bob Bridgland to resolve this.
Astro MPAGS conference — The MPAGS universities (Warwick, Birmingham, Nottingham)
are currently running termly student led conferences at each institution. The next conference
is to be held at Warwick on the 6th February. This clashes with the planned date for the next
SSLC meeting which requires rescheduling. This has been agreed to take place the following
week on the 13th February. For the MPAGS event, a room for talks has been booked, but help
may be require with sorting other things for the event, e.g. poster board hire. Susan is happy
to help with this.
8. Next meeting
Next PG-SSLC meeting has been rescheduled to take place at 12:30 13th Feb 2015 in P523.
This is reflected on the PG-SSLC webpage.