PHYSICISTS OF the future will be trained at a world-leading centre to be opened in St Andrews.

The £9.4 million doctoral training centre which specialises in condensed matter physics is a collaboration between St Andrews, Edinburgh and Heriot Watt universities.

It will be officially launched tomorrowat the School of Physics and Astronomy by St Andrews principal Dr Louise Richardson.

Between 50 and 60 graduate students will join its PhD programme over the next decade, with the first 10 having begun in September.

Students will be funded for four years and part of their course will be a piece of original research.

Professor Andy Mackenzie said, “UK physics departments have long wished for the opportunity to emulate the thoroughness of the PhD training that is given by, for example, the elite universities in the USA.

“This is our chance to do so and we are determined to work to internationally benchmarked standards of excellence in both the scope and content of our training.”

The centre, part of the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance, will hold symposia, residential schools and public events with lectures from international leaders in the field.

A student-driven outreach programme will aim to take the subject of condensed matter physics into schools and the community.