Tuesday 17th November 2026 from 19:00 for 19:30
Abingdon United Football Club (Northcourt Rd, OX14 1PL, Abingdon)
The 1997 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded for the laser cooling of atoms to temperatures less than 1mK. Since then, applications of ultracold atoms – and more recently ultracold molecules – have been developed, including in areas such as quantum sensing, quantum simulation and computing, and fundamental physics measurements. But what about chemistry at such low temperatures – colder than any natural environment in the universe? Can chemical reactions happen at all under these extremely low energy conditions? In this talk, Professor Softley will discuss how this question can be investigated experimentally, and consider whether this ultracold ‘quantum world’ is the ultimate medium to control chemical reactions.
Speaker: Professor Timothy Softley
© Anne Purkiss
Professor Tim Softley is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at University of Birmingham, and Emeritus Fellow of Merton College Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018 and is currently Deputy Chair of the Royal Society’s Public Engagement Committee. After a first degree in Chemistry at Wadham College, Oxford, his PhD was on the infrared spectroscopy of molecular ions at Southampton University (1981-85). He developed techniques for laser spectroscopy in the extreme ultraviolet at Stanford University as a Harkness Fellow 1984-86, and continued these developments as a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Cambridge 1987-1990. He was then appointed Tutorial Fellow of Merton College, and University Lecturer (and subsequently Professor) in Physical Chemistry (1990-2015) at University of Oxford. In the late 1990s at Oxford he became interested in how to create molecular samples at sub-1K temperatures and how to study the rates and dynamics of chemical reactions under these conditions. After a 4 year period as Head of Chemistry at University of Oxford (2011-2015), he was appointed Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Knowledge Transfer) at University of Birmingham (2015-2021). After spending 6 years working to enhance the University’s research environment and profile across all disciplines, he was given the opportunity to refocus on his own research interests as Professor of Chemistry at Birmingham 2021-2026, and now Emeritus Professor since October 2026. Locally, he is Chair of the Thames Vale Youth Orchestra Trust, based in Abingdon, and is a keen amateur musician.
