Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

It is with sadness to write that last Wednesday, Em/Prof Sydney Hamberger, aged 92, foundation Professor of the Plasma Research Laboratory passed away in Canberra and was laid to rest last Friday. After the 1976 School review, Sydney was appointed to lead a new department that would combine the talents Plasma Physics Group, with the Homo-Polar Generator team and ultimately Theoretical Physics. Based on theoretical and experimental work over the 80’s, Sydney was the prime mover in proposing the construction of a stellarator, similar to one in operation at Princeton where the group had had long standing collaborators. Known as H1 ‘Heliac’ this became one of the largest engineering programs in the School and was a showcase for the technical design and fabrication skills in our workshop. By the early 90’s, H1 was running and fostered the development of novel diagnostic techniques, as well as the opportunity for theoretical modelling of confined plasmas. Over the 25 years of operation the Heliac received several National research infrastructure grants, almost $30M in total. The image above shows Sydney firing the plasma one last time on May 8th, 2017 at a reunion of past technical and academic staff (see below). Always the enthusiast, Sydney spoke fondly that day of his experiences with his colleagues and noted his pleasure that the facility would have a new home with collaborators at University of South China. A full collection of photos from the reunion can be found here. All photos are courtesy of Martin Conway (SCU).  

A reminder of the email Prof Elena Ostrovskaya (AD(R)) sent last week about the grant writing workshop on the 23rd (1000-1200). Run by Rebecca Colless of Gemaker this program has been widely praised by colleagues at RSAA and will suit applicants of all levels of experience. But hurry, spaces are limited. To register for this workshop, click here. 

And to entice you to come onto campus, even just for a short visit, you will be pleased to know that the Vanilla Bean and Balmain Grocer are both open for business. And, just to make it even more palpable, Prof Jodie Bradby (Head MP) sent in a picture of her morning tea last week.

Have a good week,
Tim

Einstein-First is an innovative approach to Physics early education, led by CGA Dist. Prof. Susan Scott and UWA Emeritus Prof. David Blair. This program aims to teach modern Einsteinian Physics to school children as young as year 3 and encourage them to take on STEM careers. 

Read a brief pitch about Susan and David's efforts in The Australian Higher Education Supplement that was published recently. 

Dr Michaela Froehlich (NPAA) is excited about being part of the Curious Minds STEM Coach Program 2021/2022. Curious Minds is a mentoring program for female students Year 9 or 10 to ignite their passion in STEM disciplines. As a STEM Coach, Michaela hopes that her enthusiasm for her multidisciplinary research field fosters curiosity and increases the student’s interest and confidence in STEM studies and careers. 

Zain Mehdi who has won the 2021 NSW Postgraduate Physics RSNSW Jak Kelly Prize at the AIP NSW Postgraduate Awards event on 9 November!

Zain was the winner of this year’s John Carver prize and represented ANU at the AIP NSW Postgraduate Awards.

Scientists Detect a "Tsunami" of Gravitational Waves

A team of international scientists, including researchers from The Australian National University (ANU), have unveiled the largest number of gravitational waves ever detected. Thirty five mergers were detected during the latest observing run (O3b) that makes the total number of 90 detections over the course of three observing runs between 2015 and 2021. Amongst the newest data release were some remarkable findings including neutron star-black hole mergers, merger of impossible black holes, and an upside-down spinning black hole-black hole pair.

» read more

HDR Workshops

ANU Academic Skills in collaboration with the Research School of Physics is offering HDR students workshops on planning, writing and editing your research writing tailored to the needs of RSPhys students.

1. Editing for Narrative - Thurs 25th Nov, 10am-12pm
2. Editing for Style and Clarity - Thurs 25th Nov, 1pm-3pm

These workshops have been offered in the past and received excellent feedback from the students who attended them.

We encourage all students to make use of this opportunity to improve their writing skills.

» read more

ANU Templates

Do you need ANU letterhead, PowerPoint slides, or an ANU minutes template?

Sign in to ANU SharePoint for current ANU templates.

Need to Schedule a Meeting with the Director?

For ANU Outlook users
Open a new invite for Director.Physics@anu.edu.au, and use Scheduling Assistant to propose a mutually convenient time and send.  

For all others
Please send an email request to Director.Physics@anu.edu.au 

Tim will reply to any meeting requests ASAP

A Reminder About Reimbursements...

When seeking a reimbursement please follow these guidelines, and remember to use the updated reimbursement form found on the ANU Policy Library.

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Weijian Chen - 18 November
Dynamical control of a non-hermitian superconducting qubit
» read more

HDR Student Reps - Seeking Expressions of Interest to Join our HDR Student Reps in 2022

Do you want to become a HDR Student Rep, 'Read more' ?

» read more