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Dr Malcolm Coupland

Dr Malcolm Coupland

I got my BSc in Physics from Southampton University in 1968 and continued there as a research student in experimental particle physics. My first research assistant post in 1972 was at Queen Mary College in London where I stayed until 1977 working first at CERN on an experiment to measure the polarization asymmetry in proton-antiproton annihilation and then at the Rutherford Laboratory making similar measurements for kaon-proton interactions. I then took up my first post at UCL, returning to CERN to work on the experiment measuring large angle hadron elastic scattering differential cross-sections.

In 1979 I was appointed as lecturer, and later senior lecturer, at Birkbeck College. There I continued to do research in collaboration with my colleagues in the experimental particle physics group at UCL, working on a number of experiments at CERN designed to measure the hadro-production of charm and bottom flavours. From 1982 till 1994 I was involved with the OPAL experiment at the LEP accelerator in CERN, at which point I decided to pull out of experimental particle physics in order to pursue some theoretical ideas.

In September 1997 the Physics Department at Birkbeck College was closed down so I lost my post there, but as part of the arrangements for transferring the evening degree programme to UCL I was offered and accepted a half-time teaching post here. Until I retired in September 2011 I organised and taught practical courses for the evening Physics students as well as giving lectures in the evenings, and I served as the Admissions and Programme Tutor for the Evening Physics BSc. In my spare time I have continued to work on the theoretical ideas mentioned above, currently in the area of classical gravity.