Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

My thanks to everyone who helped with the film crew last Friday. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the various labs chatting with you. It was a very pleasant day and I particularly enjoyed the many signs of humour throughout our labs, visible only to the likeminded (see below).

Our most recent Emeritus Professor joined the Governor General, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn, for a selfie at the 50th Anniversary of the Order of Australia Awards. Jagadish said the Governor General keenly offered her photographic skills. As I did last week with Ken Baldwin’s efforts, I’m delighted to see these joyful moments, reminding us of the positive impact of physics on our academic and civic communities.  

My congratulations to the MakerSpace team for winning, and now signing, an ACT Govt Priority Investment Program (PIP) grant together with CBRIN, CIT, UNSW(Canberra), and UCanberra. This grant is designed to connect our students to the broadest range of workshop facilities across ACT by introducing a Government-funded voucher scheme to recover host institutional costs. Their efforts are helping to bring awareness to our critically important workshop facilities in the region.

Below, Dr Victor Pantano (CEO OreAI, MP), speaks as the keynote at a recent Salon Canberra event. Present were many of the region’s visionary property developers, key civic leaders, and the new University of Canberra VC, the Honourable Bill Shorten.

The Government panel leading community discussion on the “Strategic Examination of Research & Development” held their first public engagement during the week. Check the link for a no-holds-barred look at gaps and failures in our research sector. I will be making two submissions around the plight of technical workshops and the lack of a University Affiliated Research Centre-like model in Australia (think JPL as the equivalent university-government structure). I strongly encourage others to make submissions. 

Finally, just another small reminder about completing your PDR with your supervisors.

Have a great weekend.
Tim

Nuclear Stewardship Information Session

Relevant for undergraduate students, postgraduate students, early career researchers and supervisors.

AINSE provides funding for a wide range of scholarship and event opportunities on an annual cycle with most opportunities opening in the first half of the year. Please come along to find out about the funding available to support research opportunities, travel, and more, with many opportunities to undertake research and collaborate at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and with some other partners.

Date: Thursday 27 February 2025
Time: 10:00am
Location: RSPhys, Bld.160, Conference Room (4.03)

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The services of the Statistical Support Network are available to Masters and PhD students for their research projects. Statistical support is available for design of experiments and surveys, data management, exploratory data analysis, statistical modelling and data presentation.

Students and their supervisors are welcome to book an initial consultation with the SSN lead via this link. Consultations are free. Depending on the nature of the support required, students may be provided with links to relevant videos, text-based or web-based tutorials, or may be connected with SSN members in Colleges who have volunteered their time to advise research students.

If you have any queries about the Statistical Support Network or the services it provides, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at ssn@anu.edu.au. The network members look forward to collaborating with you on your projects!

Call For Physics Problems – ANU Physics Society Weekly Challenge

The ANU Physics Society is looking for original physics problems to feature in their new Weekly Physics Challenge! They want to engage students in problem-solving and critical thinking by posting thought-provoking challenges each week on their social media.

The ANU Physics Society welcome problems at a range of difficulty levels, but are especially keen on those that are accessible to first-year students while still being interesting and engaging. 

If you’d like to contribute, please send your problem(s) with solutions to anuphysicssociety@gmail.com. Please also mention whether you would like to be credited, or kept anonymous, with your submission.

Your support in fostering an engaging and curious physics community at ANU is greatly appreciated!

Quantum Science and Engineering Fellowships

The EPFL QSE Center has the pleasure to launch its second call for QSE postdoctoral fellowships. This fellowship offers motivated young researchers from Switzerland and abroad the opportunity to carry out their research in collaboration with the EPFL QSE community on cutting-edge topics in quantum science and quantum engineering.

The submission deadline is 18 March 2025 and the earliest project start is August 2025.

Please read carefully the eligibility requirements and submission process of this second call in the “Guide for Applicants”, available on the webpage.

For further info or if you have any questions please email: qse@epfl.ch

Oliphant Bldg. Meeting Rooms - Closed

All Oliphant (Bldg. #60) Meeting rooms will be closed from 12/12/24.

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College Hot Desking In Physics

Finance, HR & RM Teams
Thursday Mornings
^{Lv2 Tearoom, Bldg 160}

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Professor Paras N. Prasad - 24 February
Chiral Photonics: Chirality-Controlled Optical, Multiphoton and Magneto-Optical Processes in Polymer Nanocomposites
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Mr Pavel Tonkaev - 26 February
Multifunctional metaphotonics and metasurfaces
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