Christopher Parkes

Chris Parkes is an experimental particle physicist working at the University of Manchester. He is the head of the department of Physics & Astronomy. The department has around 100 academic staff, 700 postdoctoral and PhD student researchers, 1200 undergraduates and support staff.

He was previously the leader of the Large Hadron Collider Beauty (LHCb) experiment. LHCb is one of the world's largest scientific projects with around 1500 members from 100 institutes in 20 countries.  He was Principal Investigator and Project Manager for the UK's construction activities of the next generation experiment the LHCb Upgrade, which completed installation in 2023 and will take data for around a decade. He was one of the instigators and the leader of the LHCb Upgrade II project which is currently in the design pahse. His research is focussed on the discovery of new physics effects through the study of matter anti-matter asymmetries and the development of radiation hard silicon detectors. He led the UK participation in the LHCb experiment from 2012-2016. He was the LHCb Vertex Locator (VELO) Project Leader during the first LHC physics period (2010-2012). He led the W Mass measurement group on the DELPHI experiment at the previous CERN collider, LEP, and was a member of the LEP W working group.

He has been a member of the UK particle physics funding council panel for new projects (STFC PPRP)and its grants panel (STFC PPGP). He was awarded the Institute Of Physics high energy physics group prize in 2010. He was a CERN guest Professor 2020-2023 and was a scientific associate with CERN in 2010-2012, 2018-2019.

Head of Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Manchester (2024-)

Professor, University of Manchester (2011-)

CERN Scientific Associate (2010-2011) (2018-2019) & Guest Professor (2020-2023)

Lecturer / Reader, University of Glasgow (2002-2011)

PPARC (now STFC) Fellow, University of Liverpool (2000-2003)

CERN Fellow (1998-2000)

D.Phil. , University of Oxford, (1994-1998)

BA (hons.), University of Cambridge (1991-1994)

Particle Physics

Please contact Prof. Parkes if you are interested in doing a PhD in particle physics.

Funding opportunities exist for PhD scholarships.