Research quality
The School is currently ranked the 14th physics department in the world, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities in Physics 2011, which is based on a wide range of measures of research performance. In 2010, the School was delighted that Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov won the Nobel Prize for Physics for groundbreaking experiments regarding the two-dimensional material graphene.
The Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) measures the quality of research conducted in universities and other higher education institutions in the UK against international standards of excellence. In the most recent research assessment exercise (RAE 2008), 85% of the school's research was rated as of international quality, with 20% world-leading. The volume of world-leading and internationally excellent research places the School 5th in the UK on the RAE criteria.