2026 IOP Conference

4 Apr 2026, 09:00 → 15 Apr 2026, 17:00 Europe/London

Huxley 300

The annual IOP Nuclear Physics Conference covers experimental and theoretical research in nuclear structure and reactions, nuclear astrophysics and hadron physics, as well as the applications of nuclear physics. The conference will feature invited speakers from the UK and overseas and is also particularly welcoming to ECRs and PhD students. Some contributed abstracts will be selected for talks in the plenary sessions. Discussion with senior members of the Science and Technology Facilities Council will be provided at a town meeting during the conference.

Further information can be found on the conference website: https://iop.eventsair.com/np2026/

A satellite meeting is being held on Thursday 16 April, also at Brighton, for early-career researchers in nuclear physics. More information is available here: https://indico.stfc.ac.uk/event/1712/

Monday, 13 April

10:45 → 11:00 Conference opening

11:00 → 12:00 Plenary

11:00 Were the Superheavy Elements Made in Nature?

Speaker: Prof. Ani Aprahamian (University of Notre Dame, USA)

Invited Abstracts_Ani Aprahamian.pdf

11:30 Nuclear structure and dynamics at finite temperature

Speaker: Prof. Dr sc. Nils Paar (University of Zagreb, Croatia)

Invited Abstracts_Nils Paar.pdf

12:00 → 12:30 IoP prize winner

12:00 Storage Rings for Nuclear Physics and Astrophysics

Speaker: Dr Ragandeep Singh Sidhu (University of Surrey, UK)

Invited Abstracts_Ragandeep Singh Sidhu.pdf

12:30 → 13:45 Lunch

13:45 → 14:45 Plenary: 2

13:45 Extending the Chart of Nuclides: How to Create New (Super)Heavy Nuclei

Speaker: Dr Sophia Heinz (GSI, Germany)

Invited Abstracts_Sophia Heinz.pdf

14:15 Neutrino–Nucleus Interactions from Reactors to the Cosmos: Precision Measurements and New Physics Opportunities

Speaker: Dr Ivan Martinez-Soler (University of Durham)

Invited Abstracts_Ivan Martinez Soler.pdf

14:45 → 15:15 Featured talks: 1

14:45 Quantum entanglement of positron annihilation gamma – fundamental research applied to Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging

Speaker: Ms Laura Stephenson (University of York)

Featured Abstracts_Laura Stephenson.pdf

15:00 Detector-Aware Neural Networks for Particle Identification in Pb-PbCollisions: Feature Set Embedding with Adaptive AttentionMechanisms

Speaker: Mr Robert Forynski (University Of Derby & CERN)

Featured Abstracts_Robert Forynski.pdf

15:15 → 15:45 Tea

15:45 → 17:00 Parallel session: A

15:45 Production of Terbium-161 at HF-ADNeF

Speaker: Max Conroy (Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Max Conroy.pdf

16:00 Nuclear Reaction Studies at NIF: Establishing the Method and Recent Results

Speaker: Dr Daniel Pitman-Weymouth (Atomic Weapons Establishment)

Oral Abstracts_Daniel Pitman-Weymouth.pdf

16:15 Nuclear and radiation backgrounds for the BUTTON anti-neutrino detector testbed at Boulby

Speaker: William Hopkins (University of Glasgow)

Oral Abstracts_William Hopkins.pdf

16:30 Detecting water in spent nuclear fuel using the prompt neutron capture reaction on hydrogen

Speaker: Brendan Green (University of Lancaster)

Oral Abstracts_Brendan Green.pdf

16:45 Probing Short Range Correlations via (p,pd) Quasi-Free Scattering reactions

Speaker: Matthew Whitehead (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Matthew Whitehead.pdf

15:45 → 17:00 Parallel session: B

15:45 A Compact Multimode Detector for the Decommissioning of Irradiated Graphite

Speaker: Nia Hunter (University of Glasgow)

Oral Abstracts_Nia Hunter.pdf

16:00 Transforming Inorganic Scintillators Into Neutron Spectrometers

Speaker: Dr Joseph O'Neill (University of Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Joseph O'Neill.pdf

16:15 The Structure of Neutron-Rich N∼126 Nuclei

Speaker: Dr Gee Bartram (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Gemma Bartram.pdf

16:30 Competing decay modes from the 25/2− spin-gap isomer in 155Lu

Speaker: Dr Andy Briscoe (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Andy Briscoe.pdf

16:45 Investigations of the unbound states in 20C

Speaker: Dr Sidong Chen (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Sidong Chen.pdf

15:45 → 17:00 Parallel session: C

15:45 Exploring intense photon/muon beams as Dark Matter detectors

Speaker: Dr Mikhail Bashkanov (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Mikhail Bashkanov.pdf

16:00 GEn-RP: Neutron Electric Form Factor Measurement using Recoil Polarimetry at Jefferson Lab

Speaker: Andrew Cheyne (University Of Glasgow)

Oral Abstracts_Andrew Cheyne.pdf

16:15 Quantum Machine Learning Meets Predicting Nuclear Binding Energy

Speaker: Prof. Serkan Akkoyun

Oral Abstracts_Serkan Akkoyun.pdf

16:30 Investigating the boundaries of enhanced octupole collectivity in the rare-earth region

Speaker: Dr Pietro Spagnoletti (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Pietro Spagnoletti.pdf

16:45 Direct Measurements of Low-Lying Monopole Transitions in 28Si

Speaker: Jacob Towers (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Jacob Towers.pdf

17:00 → 19:30 Poster session and refreshments

Tuesday, 14 April

09:00 → 10:00 Plenary: 3

09:00 Radioactive ion beams for real-time PET-guided adaptive particle therapy

Speaker: Dr Daria Boscolo (GSI, Germany)

Invited Abstracts_Daria Boscolo.pdf

09:30 TBC

Speaker: Dr Bryan McKinnon (University of Glasgow)

10:00 → 10:30 Featured talks: 2

10:00 Evidence of isomeric states in 183,184Ta.

Speaker: Mr Siddharth Doshi (University of Brighton)

Featured Abstracts_Siddharth Doshi.pdf

10:15 First identification of resonant states in the 45V(p,γ)46Cr reaction and their influence on the production of 44Ti in core-collapse supernovae

Speaker: Dr Chris Cousins (University of Surrey)

Featured Abstracts_Chris Cousins.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: D

11:00 Constraining the density-dependence of the symmetry energy by cross section measurements at R3B

Speaker: Dr Lukas Ponnath (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Lukas Ponnath.pdf

11:15 Uncertainty quantification of spin-parity assignments in 19Ne with ML methods

Speaker: Benjamin Wood (University of Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Benjamin Wood.pdf

11:30 Evidence of the 9B(1/2+) state in the 12C(p,a)9B reaction

Speaker: Alex Brooks (University of Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Alex Brooks.pdf

11:45 Lifetime measurements in neutron-rich barium and cerium isotopes using the fast-timing technique

Speaker: Faye Rowntree (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Faye Rowntree.pdf

12:00 B(E2) measurements of heavy N = Z nuclei at FRIB

Speaker: Prof. Michael Bentley (University of York)

Oral AbstractsMichael Bentley.pdf

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: E

11:00 Particle identification with Bragg spectroscopy at ISOLDE Solenoidal Spectrometer

Speaker: Michał Włodarczyk (University of Manchester)

Oral Abstracts_Michał Włodarczyk.pdf

11:15 A Novel Method for PET Radioisotope Photoproduction

Speaker: Josephine Stone (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Josephine Stone.pdf

11:30 Differential cross section measurements for (n,α) reactions with a Time Projection Chamber

Speaker: Dr Jack Bishop (University of Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Jack Bishop.pdf

11:45 Deep Learning for Enhanced Muon Tomography Imaging

Speaker: William O'Donnell (University of Glasgow)

Oral Abstracts_William O'Donnell.pdf

12:00 Position resolution estimation of Adaptive Grid search algorithm for multi-site interactions position determination in 'SIGMA' detector.

Speaker: Nawaf Altasan (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Nawaf Altasan.pdf

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: F

11:00 The dynamical evolution of the parity splitting energy in nuclei with octupole deformation

Speaker: Dr Radu Budaca (Horia Hulubei, Romania)

Oral Abstracts_Radu Budaca.pdf

11:15 Recent developments for microscopic optical potentials for nucleon-nucleus elastic scattering

Speaker: Ashley Pitt (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Ashley Pitt.pdf

11:30 Lifetime measurements of the 2+ state in 128Nd and 132Sm

Speaker: Dr Jacob Heery (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Jacob Heery.pdf

11:45 Laser spectroscopy measurements of 151-175Tm. On behalf of the COLLAPS collaboration

Speaker: Jack Hughes (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Jack Hughes.pdf

12:00 Radiative decay and electromagnetic moments in 229Th determined within nuclear DFT

Speaker: Alejandro Restrepo-Giraldo (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Alejandro Restrepo-Giraldo.pdf

12:15 → 13:30 Lunch

13:30 → 14:30 Plenary: 4

13:30 Quantum algorithms for the nuclear shell model

Speaker: Dr Arnau Rios Huguet (University of Barcelona, Spain)

Invited Abstracts_Arnau Rios Huguet.pdf

14:00 The Path to Commercial Fusion Energy

Speaker: Dr Chantal Shand (UK Atomic Energy Authority, UK)

14:30 → 15:00 Featured talks: 3

14:30 Development of collectivity beyond N=50 in the Ge and Se isotopes

Speaker: Dr Frank Browne (University of Manchester)

Featured Abstracts_Frank Browne.pdf

14:45 Stress-Testing AGATA: Benchmarking the High-Spin Capabilities of the 1π AGATA Spectrometer at LNL

Speaker: Dr Connor Sullivan (University of Liverpool)

Featured Abstracts_Conor Sullivan.pdf

15:00 → 15:30 Tea

15:30 → 17:30 STFC town meeting

Convener: Prof. Wilton Catford (University of Surrey)

17:30 → 18:30 Exhibitor's reception

19:30 → 23:00 Conference dinner

Wednesday, 15 April

09:30 → 10:30 Plenary: 5

09:30 Exploring the key astrophysical reaction 12C(α,ɣ) with TPCs and ɣ beams

Speaker: Dr Robin Smith (Sheffield Hallam University)

Invited Abstracts_Robin Smith.pdf

IOP_Smith_v1.pdf

10:00 Nuclear signatures from binary stars

Speaker: Dr Rob Izzard (University of Surrey)

Invited Abstracts_Robert Izzard.pdf

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: G

11:00 Pixel-based Target Recoil Tracker (TRT) for R3B at FAIR

Speaker: Beatriz Amorim (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Beatriz Amorim.pdf

11:15 Development of novel LaBr3(Ce) Detector Modules for Nuclear Astrophysics Applications

Speaker: Sulagna Dutta (University of West of Scotland)

Oral Abstracts_Sulagna Dutta.pdf

11:30 Elucidating Strangeness with Electromagnetic Probes

Speaker: Asli Acar (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Asli Acar.pdf

11:45 Preliminary 2Pi0 channel analysis at GlueX

Speaker: Alexandra Berger (University of Glasgow)

Oral Abstracts_Alexandra Berger.pdf

12:00 Jet measurements with the ALICE experiment at the LHC

Speaker: Dr Jaime Norman (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Jaime Norman.pdf

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: H

11:00 First Cross-Section Measurements of the 93Sr(α, xn)95-96Zr Reactions: Implications for the Weak r-Process

Speaker: Claire Jameson (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Claire Jameson.pdf

11:15 Beta-decay spectroscopy of proton-rich N=82 isotones

Speaker: Norah Alwadie (University of Liverpool)

Oral Abstracts_Norah Alwadie.pdf

11:30 A direct measurement of the ²⁷Al(α,p)³⁰Si cross section with TACTIC

Speaker: Annabelle Cyster (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Annabelle Cyster.pdf

11:45 A Novel Approach to Observing Nuclear Excitation by Electron Capture

Speaker: John Fuller (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_John Fuller.pdf

12:00 Probing the 10B + α pathway for primordial stars at LUNA: Experimental techniques and preliminary results

Speaker: Rhys Bonnell (University of Edinburgh)

Oral Abstracts_Rhys Bonnell.pdf

11:00 → 12:15 Parallel session: I

11:00 Decay Spectroscopy of Medical Imaging Isotope Terbium-152

Speaker: Edward O'Sullivan (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Edward O'Sullivan.pdf

11:15 Water neutron moderation of AmBe: a computational approach with Geant4

Speaker: Filippo Falezza (The University of Birmingham)

Oral Abstracts_Filippo Falezza.pdf

11:30 Shell evolution and neutron halo formation in heavy sodium isotopes

Speaker: Dr Jagjit Singh (University of Manchester)

Oral Abstracts_Jagjit Singh.pdf

11:45 Unveiling proton-neutron pairing in homogeneous and isotropic nuclear matter

Speaker: Betania Backes (University of York)

Oral Abstracts_Betania Backes.pdf

12:00 Thermal effects on neutron capture cross sections using a quantum dynamical approach

Speaker: Nicholas Lightfoot (University of Surrey)

Oral Abstracts_Nicholas Lightfoot.pdf

12:15 → 13:30 Lunch

12:45 → 13:30 IoP nuclear group AGM

Convener: Dr Jack Henderson (University of Surrey)

13:30 → 14:00 Featured talks: 4

13:30 Fission studies using quasi-free scattering reactions in inverse kinematics

Speaker: Dr Jose Benlliure (csic - Universitat De València)

Featured Abstracts_Jose Benlliure.pdf

13:45 Anapole Moment Calculated within Nuclear DFT

Speaker: Dr Herlik Wibowo (University of York)

Featured Abstracts_Herlik Wibowo.pdf

14:00 → 15:00 Plenary: 6

14:00 Spectroscopy of pear-shaped nuclei

Speaker: Prof. John Smith (University of the West of Scotland)

Invited Abstracts_John Smith.pdf

14:30 Unveiling nucleon structure through measurements of Generalized Parton Distributions

Speaker: Prof. Silvia Niccolai (IJClab, France)

Invited Abstracts_Silvia Niccolai.pdf

15:00 → 15:15 Conference closing