Director's Message

My dear colleagues,

It was heartening to see so many of you at our School morning tea on Wednesday to acknowledge those departing under the VSS in the months ahead. I know a number of personal farewells are being planned, such as yesterday’s lunch for Julie Arnold, pictured above with friends (with thanks to Prof. Nanda Dasgupta for sharing the photo). We wish all our colleagues the very best, and for those not continuing with us as Emeriti, I hope to see you again at future Founder’s Day gatherings.

Speaking of Founder’s Day, I mentioned last year the different ways anniversaries can reflect our history. In drawing together 75 years of staff and student data, one number struck me – more than 22,000 person-years of accumulative service to physics. What I value in this simple statistic is what it says about shared equity in our success. Every 2.5 years we now add a millennium of collective contribution. It’s a powerful reminder that sustained success, across our research students, professional staff, and academics forms the foundation on which the next generation builds. What we celebrated on Wednesday was a rich sample of the diverse talents needed to create our research environment.  

Before I drift beyond the Event Horizon, I want to offer heartfelt thanks to two long-time editors of this newsletter, Sue Wigley and Nikki Azzopardi, whose care, humour, and eye for detail have made it a joy to share stories from across the School.

It has been an immense pleasure to work alongside you all over these past decades. Through both turbulent and calm times, there has been a constant thread of kindness and integrity that runs through our community. I leave inspired by the collaborative and inventive spark that lives here. Thank you.

Tim

Quantum Future Talent: Open Day & Careers Fair

The Sydney Quantum Academy is hosting a Quantum Careers fair in Sydney on the 15 July. Connect with universities and employers, discover scholarships, internships, and graduate opportunities and gain insights from thought-provoking panel discussions. More information and free registration at this link (spots are limited)

MSI | Topological Methods For Time-varying Data: Theory And Applications (Top Time) Workshop

Topological Data Analysis (TDA) is a research area at the intersection of Algebra, Topology, Geometry, Statistics and Machine Learning. While methods from TDA have been applied successfully to data from a variety of domains — from financial mathematics, to materials science, climate science, biomedical imaging, or social science —, there has been less work done on studying in a principled way how such methods can be applied to data that changes dynamically over time. The goal of this workshop is to bring together experts in TDA with experts in application domains in which time-varying data is particularly prevalent. Examples include time series in climate modelling and financial mathematics, as well as dynamic networks in epidemiology and social science modelling.

Date: Mon 27 - Friday 31 Oct 2025
Time: Mon 9am- Fri 5pm
Venue: Seminar Rooms 1.33 & 1.37, Hanna Neumann Building 145

Register

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'Development of Advanced Semiconductor Radiation Dosimetry at Centre for Medical Radiation Physics'
Distinguished Professor Anatoly Rozenfeld
^{(on behalf of CMRP) University of Wollongong}

Date: Wednesday 25 June
Time: 1-2pm AEST
Zoom Link

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AINSE grants are now open, please visit their website for more information.

3 Minute Thesis Competition 2025

Preparations have begun for this year’s Three Minute Thesis competition – the time when ANU’s PhDs are challenged to engage, entertain and inform you with the gist of their thesis in three short minutes (and not a second more!) supported by just a single PowerPoint slide.

3MT allows our PhDs to showcase not only the amazing research that we do here at ANU, but also to show off their research communication skills. To see a good 3MT presentation can be an incredibly informative, entertaining and even quite moving experience.

Training for the year begins with the launch/information session next Monday and the carries on through to the College heat on 1 July and ultimate Grand Final on 11 July. Students can attend the training without competing if they just want to brush up on their communication skills with the pressure of competition. With oral exams now very much ‘in the mix’, 3MT training has become much more relevant to our HDRs.

Please register here if you are interested.

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Call For Applications | The Boswell Technologies HDR Award For Space Exploration, Moon and Mars - Closing Date 30 June 2025

Applications are being sought for the Boswell Technologies HDR Award for Space Exploration, Moon and Mars. This award is intended to aid higher degree research students undertaking research in the area of space exploration and technology, Moon and Mars.

Funding is provided by the Boswell Technologies Endowment fund, established by Prof Roderick Boswell. The award could be used towards travel, acquiring of equipment or collaboration activities. The value of the award is up to $4000 that can be shared between more than one recipient.

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College Hot Desking In Physics

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

Staff Movements

Prof Greg Lane will be away 23/6/25 - 14/7/25
^{AJ Mitchell will be Acting HoD in the period 23/6 - 27/6. Kaitlin Cook will be Acting HoD in the period 30/6 - 14/7}

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Mr Daniel Lee - 23 June
Investigation of excitation energy dependence of fission modes in actinides through transfer-induced fission
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