Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

The paper of the week comes from Yiyuan Wang, Kirill Koshelev and their team, with their work on "Resonant helical dichroism in twisted dielectric metastructures" published here in ACS Nano. The research proposes and experimentally verifies a concept that allows control of orbital angular momentum in structured vortex beams using nanoscale meta-structures with optical resonances. This marks Kirill's first publication as the supervising (last) author - a significant milestone worth celebrating! Congratulations!

This year’s John Carver Seminar Series was held on 25 September. Thank you to all speakers who did an amazing job at presenting their research. Special thanks to the judges – Levi Beeching, Kirill Koshelev and Jessica Wierbik who had a tough job of selecting the prize winners from the cohort of extremely strong candidates, and a very big thank you to Josef Richmond, who was the Chairperson/MC for this event.

Congratulations to the prize winners: 

• The John Carver Prize – Aswathi Pampurayath Subhash (CGA) 

• The Director's Prize – Aritra Das (QST) 

• The Dean's Prize – Namisha Chabbra (CGA) 

• People's Choice – Xiaoying Huang (EME)

I've just returned from the International Conference on High Pressure Science and Technology (AIRAPT-29) in Matsuyama, and it was a good reminder of how valuable conferences are for building networks and staying connected to the broader research community. This is especially important for our students and I hope that everyone is aware of the ANU VC’s Travel grant scheme which can support student conference travel. Speaking of students making their mark internationally, congratulations to Hendrik Heimes who won a poster prize at the summer school associated with the conference.

Finally, an update on lab moves from our Infrastructure Associate Director, Hoe Tan – Lan Fu/EME and Cormac Corr's moves are complete, with Rose Ahlefeldt and Elena Ostrovskaya scheduled to follow shortly. And I think we are still looking for Infrastructure Committee representatives from some departments, so please get in touch with Hoe if you're interested in contributing.

Jodie

New University Travel Training Sessions

- When booking travel for any type of University business, it is mandatory to use ATPI -

In response to the roll-out of the new travel approval and booking systems, a series of training sessions have been scheduled to support staff in navigating the new tools and updated travel policy and handbook.

Whether you’re a self-booker, travel arranger (organise travel for self + others), or delegate/approver, the training sessions are tailored to meet your specific needs.

Please 'read more' to register for a session.

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Growing crystals for lasers, rather than sculpting them, could be the key to a new generation of nanoscopic lasers, that will be embedded in communication and processing technology of the future.

Dr Wei Wen Wong said the new technique can streamline manufacturing of lasers a tenth of the diameter of a human hair, as well as open the door for further miniaturisation, without sacrificing efficiency.

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ANU Futures Workshop: Recent Progress of Harmonic Analysis in General Relativity & Quantum Information

A workshop introducing researchers with some background in harmonic analysis and dispersive partial differential equations to some open problems in general relativity and quantum information.

Date: Mon 17 Nov - Sat 22 Nov 2025
Time: 9am (Mon) -1pm (Sat)
Location: Seminar Rooms 1.33 & 1.37, Hanna Neumann Bldg #145

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2026 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics Application

Applications are open for the CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics.

Research in physics and mathematics is fundamental for Australia's future. The founders of this scholarship know that early experience in leading overseas laboratories greatly benefits graduates embarking on a research career.

The CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics was established to commemorate the scientific contributions of Drs. John Dunlop, Tony Farmer, Gerry Haddad and Don Price who died in a helicopter crash in March 2013.

The $6,000 travel scholarship helps post-graduate students visit and/or conduct research in an overseas or interstate institution such as a university or research establishment of international standing in the field of proposed research. The CSIRO are keen to keep awarding this scholarship each year.

Funding for the scholarship is made possible by the generosity of family, friends, CSIRO alumni and colleagues of Drs. John Dunlop, Gerry Haddad, Don Price and Tony Farmer. The Scholarship team also acknowledges the generous contributions from the Laboratories Credit Union and CSIRO.

College Hot Desking In Physics

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

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Ms Rikako Kono - 9 October
Final MPhil Seminar
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Ms Caroline Seabra - 15 October
Investigating the onset of dissipative processes in heavy ion fusion using MANTEIS
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School Seminar Program - 14 October

Probing Gravity, spacetime, and the dark sector — Gravitational-Wave insights from colliding black holes - Dr Ling (Lilli) Sun

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Founder's Day 2025 - 24 October

Physics Auditorium & Foyer

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