CSEC Logo: Schematic of a sample at high pressure between diamond anvils, heated by a laser beam passing through the diamonds, and surrounded by a pickup coil.

Coming Seminars and Meetings:
11/12/08, 11 am - Mirjam van Kaan (Amsterdam): Properties of the interior of the Moon
For more information on past and future CSEC seminars click here

News and Announcements:
June 2008 - Prof. Paul Attfield is the new Director of CSEC
May 2008 - Dr. Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao is elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society
May 2008 - Dr. Russell Hemley is elected a Corresponding Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

CSEC is a multi-disciplinary Centre at The University of Edinburgh designed to promote the study of materials at extremes of pressure and temperature, and in electromagnetic fields, using both in-house and synchrotron and neutron techniques.

Research interests range from fundamental physics, chemistry and biology, through geoplanetary and materials science, to engineering and technology. The members of the Centre represent the Schools of Physics, Chemistry, GeoSciences, Engineering and Electronics, and Biological Sciences.

The objectives of CSEC are to:

  • bring together existing expertise in the UoE to create a worldclass Centre;
  • raise the in-Edinburgh infrastructure to the level required to complement that at the Central Facilities, and secure this into the future;
  • integrate in-Edinburgh research with Central Facilities research so as to make optimal use of both;
  • provide a UK centre of excellence in fundamental, applied and strategic research across the breadth of this burgeoning field, with the capacity for continuing long-term development, and the ability to respond to strategic needs;
  • provide access to state-of-the-art techniques and expertise for non-expert researchers, and to assist actively in making these techniques routinely available in UK research.

The foundation of the Centre is funded through the Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) grant awarded in December 2000. CSEC building is located in a wing built on the existing James Clerk Maxwell Building and is named after the renowned Scots-born geophysicist Erskine D. Williamson. To find out more about E. D. Williamson and his contribution to high-pressure science read the article 'Erskine Williamson, Extreme Conditions, and the Birth of Mineral Physics' by R. J. Hemley from Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington in Physics Today, April 2006. Copyright 2006, American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

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