Wave Phenomena
Research at Reading

image of scattered waves

This research grouping was formed in 2005 to help bring together scientists throughout the University with overlapping research interests in the theory and applications of waves, and to facilitate inter-disciplinary research.

image of scattered waves

Wave phenomena are hugely important in all areas of science and engineering and at a whole variety of length scales, from the atomic to terrestrial and beyond. Reflecting this ubiquity, recent issues of Nature discuss a range of applications including seismic wave motions, the coupling of wind and ocean waves, refraction and imaging with photonic crystals, probing atomic structure with attosecond pulses, the design of low-loss optical wave guides, travelling waves in the occurrence of epidemics, and surface plasmon subwavelength optics. Three issues of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Physical Sciences in the last year are devoted to topics in this area, discussing "The terahertz gap: the generation of far-infrared radiation and its applications", "Short-wave scattering", and "Nano-optics", all areas in which Reading has significant expertise.


The Steering Committee for Wave Phenomena is currently made up of:


Recent activities:


Future activities:



This page is maintained by Stephen Langdon and Nick Biggs