Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

I was delighted to see last week our Emeritus Professor Hans Bachor bestowed with another national  civilian honour. Seen above, His Excellence Dr Thomas Fitschen, the Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany presents to Hans the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, given to those who serve the German community over and above their professional duties. The Ambassador spoke proudly how Hans has worked tirelessly for several decades to build on German-Australian relations in research and science outreach. Through the Australian Academy of Science and with government support, Hans has played a key role in successfully transposing German outreach programs such as Little Scientists and Falling Walls into the Australian context. Those who know Hans will know these are just two examples of a life committed to engagement and mentorship. Please join me in congratulating Hans on this very significant international recognition.

This Thursday we will celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (see below). This is a chance for everyone to contribute and my thanks to Jodie, James and Phil for coordinating submissions.

Last week I released the first version of the implementation plan. As you might have seen, the first most pressing matter is to re-constitute the Departments. To assist with any questions you might have about this process I have booked an open Zoom meeting at 10am on Wednesday 10th. Ahead of this meeting I will be contacting all Emeriti, Honorary and ongoing academic staff with a simple form requesting that they nominate their preferred Department by next Monday (15th Feb). Unless otherwise arranged all students, fixed-term staff, academic and professional, will join the Department nominated by their primary supervisor. Please use this remaining week to confirm with your supervisor their preferred Department. My hope is that by Friday 20th I can announce the foundational Departmental staff, and commence the quest for the new Heads. James and I are happy to address any questions directly. The realignment of the School Technical and Administrative structures will follow once the Departments start to coalesce. 

My heartfelt thanks to all those engaging so actively in our upcoming teaching semester. 

Have a great week,
Tim

Grand Graduation Celebration – Monday 8 February

State of the University – Wednesday 10 February

Commencement Address – Monday 15 February

All questions can be directed to events@anu.edu.au. 

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Dominik Koll (Nuclear Physics) has had his research highlighted in the RADIATE Newsletter.

RADIATE is a European Union funded joint venture of 18 institutions for ion beam applications, funded in 2019 for 3 years with a total of 10 million EURO. It is a special honor for him as a researcher from an Australian institution to get access and be highlighted (The ANU is the first non-EU institution to be highlighted).

To read Dominik's article scroll to page eight of the RADIATE Newsletter.

Nonlinear Physics Center congratulates PhD students Ms. Elizaveta Melik-Gaykazyan and Mr. Kirill Koshelev who are the leading authors of the paper “From Fano to Quasi-BIC Resonances in Individual Dielectric Nanoantennas” just published in Nano Letters. 

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Building and Room Security Access

As per Graeme Cornish’s recent email, staff and students have recently been moved to a new electronic security door access structure. All approved access will roll over into this new structure for current card holders. Please note that the school now has a general access restriction of 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday.  

Only those people that have been approved by the WHS team (updated risk assessment, training and safe work procedures in place) will be granted additional access (24/7).

If you need to complete a new after-hours risk assessment, please see the new top section here: https://physics.anu.edu.au/intra/whs/

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Mr Robin Georg - 11 February
Transient coil-plasma interaction in inductive plasma generators for space propulsion
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Public Lecture - 18 February

Anti-gravity devices: are they realistic? - Dr Peter J Riggs

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NHMRC schemes opening in 2021 (Q1)

The College of Science Research Office (CRO) is now inviting notices of intent (NoI) to submit applications for the following schemes opening in 2021.

Equity and Diversity in RSPhys

The Equity and Diversity Committee will meet for the first time in 2021 on the 9th February. If you are interested in contributing to the committee’s work to improve the engagement and environment of underrepresented groups within our School, then please contact James Sullivan (james.sullivan@anu.edu.au). Contributions from any and all staff and students are encouraged.

From Previous Weeks...

Volume Imaging Symopsium
16th - 19th February 2021

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