Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

Just a quick reminder that nominations for the Director's Awards close today at 5pm – if you haven't already sent yours to the School Manager, now's the time! I hope everyone is looking forward to Founder's Day this Friday 24th October, our annual celebration celebrating the school's achievements and honouring our Founder Sir Mark Oliphant. All are welcome to attend, and I'm thrilled to share that Interim Vice-Chancellor Rebekah Brown has accepted our invitation to join us for the first hour. To make the most of her visit and ensure she has time for at least a quick cup of tea with us, we'll be starting promptly at 9am with an early morning tea at 9:45am. Between morning tea and lunch, we'll have talks from each department, all designed to be accessible and understandable to everyone regardless of their field. Lunch will be in the foyer of B160.

This week's paper showcases the collaborative spirit across our departments, with experiments from QST and theoretical modelling from FTP. The team's work on "Multimode feedback cooling of the collective modes of a Bose-Einstein condensate" has just been published in Physical Review A. Congratulations to Ryan Thomas, Joe Hope and the entire team on this achievement – it's wonderful to see such cross-departmental collaboration. This marks our sixth paper profiled in the Event Horizon, and I encourage you all to keep sending your publications to your Head of Department, particularly those from our students and EMCRs.

Some fantastic individual achievements to celebrate this week as well. Jagadish Chennupati was inducted as an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University last week. We'll need to get a copy of his acceptance letter for the school archives! Meanwhile, Shankar Dutt has been selected by the Australian Academy of Science for nomination to attend the 75th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in 2026 – a tremendous honour.

Thank you to everyone who contributed through their Head of Department, Associate Director, or EMCR and student representatives to last week's school strategy meeting that started the school's contribution to the next ANU strategic plan, which is being co-designed with the ANU community.

Finally, with our school executive meeting coming up this Thursday, please send any agenda items to your Head of Department, representative, or directly to me. Busy week!

Jodie

Job Opportunity | APS 5 - Intelligence Assessment Analyst

As an APS 5 Intelligence Assessment Analyst, you will research and analyse complex issues of national importance in support of Australia’s defence and security. You will think strategically about events around the world, to consider their implications for Australia. You will work collaboratively with your team and other counterparts to apply rigorous tradecraft and produce intelligence assessments. You will engage with customers to understand their requirements and objectives, and ensure your communication of assessments is clear and unambiguous. Successful candidates will benefit from specialised training as well as opportunities to engage with National Intelligence Community, broader Defence and international partners to build professional networks.

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Job Opportunity | Commercial Development Manager

Are you passionate about translating research for societal impact?

The Research and Innovation Portfolio provides leadership and oversight of the University’s research strategies to deliver high quality research outcomes and impact, including through commercialisation, and industry and business engagement. The Office of Research, Partnerships and Translation (RPT) is responsible for partnering with ANU researchers, professional staff and external stakeholders to help create impact and drive growth through commercial and end-user engagement.

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Annual Student Data Visualisation Competition

If you are a Honours/Masters/PhD student and have developed a really cool graphic as part of your project, enter this competition to be in the running for prizes, and a spot in our gallery of winners to be on display at the ANU Research Expo next year. 

Entrants should submit their graphic and no more than 300 words describing the context of the graph and the information that it conveys. If the graphic was produced in R, please submit the R code as well. Entry is limited to one submission per person.

Closing date in 2025 is Friday 31 October.

If you are a supervisor, please encourage all your students to consider entering - you don't need to be an Statistical Support Network client to enter.

If you have any queries please don't hesitate to get in touch.

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Considering a Career with TGA ? | Oct 20

Discover how your research skills can make an impact beyond academia.

Join representatives from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to explore career pathways, recruitment insights, and the transition from research to regulatory and policy roles within Australia’s health sector.

The session will also cover professional growth and development opportunities at TGA, followed by a Q&A with agency representatives.
Open to HDR candidates, ECRs, and research staff interested in broadening their career horizons beyond academia. 

Date: Monday 20th October
Time: 11.30 a.m. – 12.30 p.m.
Location: Finkel Theatre, JCSMR

Register Here