Manchester University Astronomy
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) is the astronomical research centre of the University of Manchester, and is one of the largest astrophysics groups in the country. The research interests of the JBCA span almost every area of astrophysics, from the Sun to the Big Bang and we are one of the world's most important centres for the technical development of radio telescopes and instrumentation. The JBCA is also responsible for the operation of the eMERLIN and VLBI national facilities and the Lovell telescope; the operations centre for these facilities is at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire. The Observatory will also be the site of the new international project office for the Square Kilometre Array telescope.
We are occasionally able to take on Year 12/A-Level students for a week-long work experience programme, where up to 12 placement students spend the week working as a team across a range of short astrophysics projects and experiments at our main research centre in the Alan Turing Building in the University of Manchester campus. The group ends the week by giving a seminar on their work to JBCA staff and PhD students. Past research topics have included the moons of Jupiter, dark matter simulations, estimating the age of a globular cluster, and spectroscopy of planetary nebulae. It's not expected that you would have any knowledge of the research topic, but they all involve working with real data as an astrophysicists would - so using maths and computing to study some aspect of the universe.
The work experience week is held twice a year, in late January/early February and in early July. Dates are announced on this page approximately 3-4 months in advance.
Eligibility for the work experience programme:
- You must be 16 or over.
- You should be in Year 12 (first year of A-Level) or equivalent
- You must be studying both physics and maths.
- You have to be available for the whole week. Each day will run roughly 10am - 4pm
- If accepted, you'll need permission from your school and a parent or guardian.
- This is not a residential placement, and most attendees either live locally or can stay with local relatives. You can apply regardless of where you live, but you'll have to arrange and pay for your own transport and/or accommodation - we can't reimburse these costs, and there will only be staff supervision 10-4 while you’re on campus.
Note that this placement is based on the University's main Oxford Road campus, not at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire. We regret that we're unable to consider applications from students in earlier years, or from students who will complete their A-level courses this year. We also can't offer placements or work shadowing on alternative dates.
The next work experience week will be . Please apply by filling out this form by Friday 31st March. We typically receive many more applications than there are places available, so please complete the whole form, particularly the statement section ("Why do you want to attend this work experience"). Applicants will be notified of the outcome by 21st April.
