The nearest airport to Durham is Newcastle (NCL). This is served by frequent UK internal flights from London (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stanstead). There are also direct flights from several other UK destinations and various European cities e.g. Amsterdam, Brussels and Paris.
Upon arrival at Newcastle Airport, participants have two options available to them.
Other airports: Note that there is a frequent rail service from Manchester Airport (see below).
Durham lies on the main London-Scotland East-coast train line and so enjoys frequent services from London (~3hrs) in the South, and Edinburgh (~2hrs) and Newcastle (15mins) in the North. The main operators on this route are GNER (for trains to/from London & Scotland) and Virgin Trains (for services to/from Brimingham and the South West of England & Scotland). Durham is also served by Arriva trains on the regional network, who run regular services to/from Darlington, Saltburn, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester Airport (~3hrs) and Newcastle stations (note that Arriva are sometime known under their previous incarnation as Northern Spirit).
Tickets can be puchased at stations for immediate travel, but fares are cheaper (often substantially) if booked in advance, especially if you commit yourself to travel on a particular train (although there is usually some restriction on which trains you book cheap tickets for). For availability, information and booking, you can either contact your travel agent, or visit thetrainline.com, or the GNER WWW site, or ring 08457 48 49 50 from the UK, +44 131 535 8054 from outside the UK.
A comprehensive timetable for services in the United Kingdom is available from Railtrack.
For participants traveling by car, Durham is easily accessible from the North-South A1(M) motorway and from the West by the A68 and A69 main roads.
A parking permit is required for University car parks. Parking in Durham outside University premises is quite severely restricted.
There are also several daily coach services into Durham Coach Station; one of the major operators in the UK is National Express. Visit their website for schedule information.
The Physics department can be reached from the center of Durham, in order of expense, by taxi, bus or foot (~20 mins walk). Here is a rather stylized map of the University campus. The Physics dept. is near location 12. Unfortunately this map does not show the railway station, which is actually a few hundred yards up a steep hill just beyond the Bus Station indicated at the top of the map.