Event Horizon

The Australian National University

Event Horizon

Research School of Physics

Weekly newsletter | vol 47 no 41 | 17–21 October 2022

Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

I’m excited for Founder’s Day on Friday, the first since 2019, and f-i-n-a-l-l-y in the new auditorium. The program can be found here, and the Zoom link (password: 998515) for those who wish to tune in remotely. The Level 4 Seminar Room in the New Building will be streaming the event in case there is overflow from the Auditorium.

Just to hand, I can highly recommend a talk by A/Prof Jacquiline Romero (UQ) titled, “Hiding Ignorance and Finding Knowledge: Adventures Using the Shape of Light” on Wednesday 11-12pm in the Finkel Lecture Theatre, next to the Vanilla Bean. Jacqi is down here to help Hans Bachor and Tim Ralph celebrate the new edition of their “A guide to experiments in quantum optics” in the afternoon. Come meet the authors at 4pm on Wednesday and enjoy the canapés on the Level 4 terrace.

An exciting opportunity for the quantum minded among us. The Australian Army are sponsoring a high-tech hackathon to imagine next generation quantum applications: Quantum Next Generation Radar Challenge 2022 | Australian Army Research Centre (AARC). Dr Marcus Doherty (QST) is behind this event and will presenting a 30 min introduction to the challenge on Wednesday (Zoom link, password: 933300). Did I mention there is $50k to be won?

Below, a picture I was lucky enough to snap when the Hon. Kim Carr, long running advocate for science received the Australian Academy of Science Medal last Thursday from the President, Dist/Prof Jagadish. Kim’s appearances in Senate Estimates Committee should be compulsory viewing for anyone who thinks being a public servant is easy. He is only the second politician in the history of the Academy to receive this honour, which only highlights the enormous beneficial impact he has had on Australian science and society.

Have a good week,
Tim

Help Us Understand Our School Staff Demographics

RSPhys is running a 60 second survey to better understand our school staffing demographics. The information you provide will be used to develop diversity and inclusion strategies and to report on the success of initiatives over time. Your responses will help RSPhys develop an equitable hiring strategy that will address barriers to employment for underrepresented groups. The survey is for staff only including full time, part time and casual appointments, professional and academic. It is not for students or emeritus and honorary appointments.

The survey is live right now and will remain open until Friday, 20 October. It is anonymous and only takes 1 minute to complete.

Access the anonymous survey here

Psychosocial Risk Management Chapter Consultation

The Draft Chapter for our WHS Management System Handbook on Psychological Safety is open for consultation until 7 November.

There are two Q&A sessions:

Friday 21 October 2022: 11am-12pm via Zoom - Click here for meeting Invitation
Thursday 27 October 2022: 9am-10am via Zoom - Click here for meeting invitation

All documentation and resources can be found on the ANU website here.

'The Origin of the Elements' - MSI Public Lecture

Thursday 20 October, 5.30-6.30pm
Professor Chris Tout, from the University of Cambridge

Stars are the source of all elements heavier than and including carbon. To understand which stars yield which elements and when we must first understand the structure and evolution of stars. Much of this understanding grew over the course of the twentieth century led by increasingly better and systematic observation and subsequently by growing computational power.