About
Prof Chris Sachrajda FRS is currently Emeritus Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow. He graduated in Mathematical Physics from the University of Sussex (1971) before obtaining a Ph.D. from Imperial College (1974). After research positions at Stanford University and CERN (Geneva), he joined the faculty of the University of Southampton in 1979. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1996, was one of the 50 recipients of the 50th Anniversary Fellowship of the University of Sussex and was the 2017 Schrödinger Professor at the University of Vienna.
Prof Sachrajda has had numerous senior responsibilities including Head of Department (1997-2000) and Deputy Head for Research (2003-2008). He led the Particle Physics Research Group (2001-2012) and was the founding Director of the Southampton Theory, Astrophysics and Gravity Research Centre (2012-2015). His service on external bodies has included membership of the Council of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (1998-2004) and as Chair of the STFC Review of Particle Physics Phenomenology (2015).
Research
Current research
Prof Sachrajda’s research interests have largely been in developing Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the quantum field theory of the strong-nuclear force and implementing it studies of particle physics phenomenology. This has included both analytic calculations (using the technique of perturbation theory) and Lattice QCD, in which space and time are approximated by a discrete lattice of points and results are obtained by large-scale numerical simulations. The current aim of his research is to explore the limits of the successful, but incomplete, Standard Model (SM) of particle physics by confronting precise theoretical predictions obtained using Lattice QCD with experimental measurements. The goal is to find clues for physics Beyond the Standard Model which may provide candidates for Dark Matter and an explanation of the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe, as well as answers to numerous questions not explained within the SM.