Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester

[2] The department is based on two sites: the Schuster Laboratory on Brunswick Street and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Cheshire, international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

[4] It is ranked 2nd place in the UK by Grade Point Average (GPA) according to the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2021, being only behind the University of Sheffield.

[10] The department has origins dating back to 1874 when Balfour Stewart was appointed the first Langworthy Professor of Physics at Owens College, Manchester.

Stewart was the first to identify an electrified atmospheric layer (now known as the ionosphere) which could distort the Earth's magnetic field.

The department is also home to several Emeritus Scientists, pursuing their research interests after their formal retirement including:

The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory , part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in Cheshire.
Sir Andre Geim was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2010 for the discovery of graphene with Konstantin Novoselov
Sir Bernard Lovell (1913–2012): founder of the Jodrell Bank Observatory . [ 17 ]