Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

As you would have seen, the new Interim VC has provided a 'plan on a page' focused around Trust, Transparency and Stability. As we get more details about the impact of the changes in coming weeks, I will share them as soon as possible. One item I think we can start to act on is the community-led codesign of the next university-wide strategy. To prepare for this process, I have invited Associate Directors, HoDs, ECMA and student representatives, and professional leads to gather perspectives on what we contribute to the ANU and what we would like to see in any university-wide strategy process.

The paper of the week is by our Head of the Department of Fundamental and Theoretical Physics, Prof Cedric Simenel. The work is a review on nuclear quantum many-body dynamics covering time-dependent Hartree-Fock theory, it's extensions, and applications in nuclear physics. Just to give an idea of how much the field has expanded in 13 years, in the first edition of this paper (in 2012) Cedric had 256 references, while this new one has 553 references! Great work Cedric!  

The John Carver Seminar Series for students is on this Thursday at 10am in the auditorium – please do come along and support our student presenters if you can.

We also have our school’s executive meeting this Thursday - please provide any agenda items to your Head of Department by 5pm Tuesday.

And congratulations to Dr Shankar Dutt from DMP who has been listed as a finalist for the "AI Academic/Researcher of the Year" in the Australian AI Awards. Good luck for Nov when the winners are announced!

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank Cormac Corr for organizing another amazing Physics Project Market day -his lucky 13th! The students loved it (perhaps the free pide?) and I hope you all enjoyed too. A special thank you to Nikki, Martin and all who helped with the setup and pack down. We had about 50 posters and it was great to see so many undergraduates there talking with staff and PhD students for a solid 2 hrs. Next year we're hoping to widen the scope to include students external to ANU and industry partners, which is an exciting development.

Jodie

ANU Fifty50 Panel Event

Fifty50, in collaboration with Engineers Australia and Franklin Women, is hosting a panel event on Monday, 29 September, 3–5pm at the Birch Innovation Space.

The panel will feature women across diverse STEM fields sharing their unique career pathways and offering practical networking strategies for students.

Speakers include:

• Dr Yingying Guo – Project Manager, Infrastructure Canberra
• Dr Rachel McCormick – Senior Physiologist, Australian Institute of Sport
• Dr Kiara Bruggeman – Lecturer, ANU
•  Dr Nicole Beard – Principal Research Scientist & Director, Science Unit, Dept. of Health & Aged Care
• Dr Melina Georgousakis – Founder & Director, Franklin Women

Where: Birch Innovation Space
When: Monday, 29 September, 3–5pm

Register: https://campus.hellorubric.com/?eid=40675

Maitri Scholarships 25/26 Open

Applications for Maitri Scholarships 25/26 open

The Maitri Scholarships Program supports India’s top students to study at Australia’s world class universities. The scholarships prioritise students undertaking PhD studies in STEM-related fields that align to priorities outlined in A New Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India:

• Clean Energy
• Agribusiness
• Technology and IT
• Resources and Resources and Mining Equipment, Technology and Services (METS)
• Defence Industries
• Space
• Health

The next round for applications is open now and closes on 14th January 2026. 

Read more about the Program incl. eligibility criteria and the application process here. 

Please get in touch with us if you are wishing to apply.