welcome

from knotted threads of darkness to topologically designed,
structured light, from philosophy to cosmology, protons to proteins

I am Mark Dennis, a Professor of Theoretical Physics in the School of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Birmingham, UK. I am the Head of the Theoretical Physics Group.

My research lies at the intersection of mathematical physics, optics, and topology. I am known for pioneering research in knotted fields, structured light, optical vortices, and geometric phases in classical waves, especially in optical physics.

More broadly, my work spans new mathematical and theoretical concepts and cross-disciplinary collaboration — from photonics and quantum mechanics to molecular and statistical physics, nanophysics to chaos to history of ideas.

I am also committed to education and mentoring. My teaching focus is theoretical physics, most recently in relativistic field theory, dynamical systems, and topology. Former undergraduate project students have explored topics including tachyons, quantum weak measurement and twistors. I lead the multidisciplinary EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Topological Design.

Previously, I was Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Bristol. There I co-led the Scientific Properties of Complex Knots (SPOCK) Leverhulme programme grant, a multi-disciplinary collaboration investigating knots in nature and applied topology.

➤ Learn more about my research, publications, teaching, talks and media, or research group.

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