PhySoc Annual Report 2012/13
This year has certainly been one of the most successful in the history of PhySoc. We’ve gone and
exceeded all of our expectations, by running a wide variety of successful event and having a great
time in doing so. As well as enabling Physics students to meet and enjoy themselves in a social
capacity, we have also welcomed students from other backgrounds and promoted Physics with our
popular Astromomy events.
In October, we ran our Freshers’ BBQ as our first official event of the year. By charging rock-bottom
prices for some lovely freshly cooked food, we enticed many hungry students, physicists and nonphysicists alike. We enjoyed the last of the summer sunshine and the opportunity to meet our new
intake of members. Later in the month, we ran our space themed Pub Social, which was another fun
chance to get to know the new members in a more relaxed setting. With many new students not
knowing a great deal about Guildford, it gave them the opportunity to explore their surroundings
whilst safe in the knowledge that someone is looking out for them.
Next came our PhySoc Pub Quiz; a popular event in the calendar for the last few years, and this year
was no exception. We packed out Wates’ Firs Room, with a record number of participating teams.
After several rounds (including a rather eclectic music round) presented by Dr Alan Dalton of the
Physics Department, the winners were selected. Top prize was a set of Amazon book vouchers, and
the runners up each received a box of sweets. We were pleased to welcome two postgraduate
teams and celebrated our close-knit department.
After that we held an Astronomy night which was the victim of poor weather; however we
persevered and held a viewing of a Horizon episode (based on Astronomy) in the Physics
Department’s Seminar Room. The evening was saved by the traditional Astronomy night’s fare of
homemade cakes and hot drinks, meaning that many people stayed and enjoyed the social aspect of
the evening.
In late November, we welcomed Professor Alan Davies of the University of Hertfordshire to give a
fascinating and enjoyable talk on the Physics of Superheroes. He was an interesting and engaging
speaker and the event proved popular, with a good number of people in the audience. We even had
a non-student guest who had heard about the event at the previous week’s Institute of Physics
lecture at the university.
We worked together with ChemSoc, MathSoc, CompSoc and MechSoc to put on the first intersociety social of the year; the popular FEPS Crawl. We sold 15 T-shirts and had a number of
additional students participate, enjoying the opportunity to network with new faces from the other
societies. This was a successful event involving societies we don’t usually work with, including the
newly ratified MathSoc and CompSoc. We hope this event will go forward next year.
In the last week of term, we held a Christmas Party in the Physics Seminar Room. We ran party
games including Pass the Parcel, Star Wars Pod-Racing and Guess the Lecturer from childhood
photos. We charged a nominal ticket price and provided food and drink, enticing many students and
even a few staff to pop along for a visit. The event was a great success and many people commented
on how they enjoyed the different take on a Christmas social event.
In January, PhySoc took a group of students to CERN in Geneva. Three days, twenty-four hours of
travelling in two nine seater buses, three countries and a trip to perhaps what is the world’s centre
of particle physics! We enjoyed sightseeing in Geneva alongside two individual tours of the ISOLDE
experiment (organised through departmental contacts) and the CMS detector (organised with
CERN).
In semester two, we continued to run successful events including the popular Tri-Sciences Bar Crawl
with ChemSoc and BioSoc and another Astronomy Night, which also raised funds for the Royal
Institution. We continue to look forward to our last few events this year, which are an Astronomy
camping trip in mid-April and the popular Physics Department 5-a-side Football Tournament in midMay. All in all, the committee have thoroughly enjoyed our experiences with PhySoc this year and
hope to see such successes repeated next year!