Event Horizon

The Australian National University

Event Horizon

Research School of Physics

Weekly newsletter | vol 51 no 11 | 23–27 March 2026

Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

Congratulations to Dr Lilli (Ling) Sun, who has been awarded the February Supervisor of the Month Award by ANU. This is a wonderful recognition of Lilli's commitment to her students and her supervisory practice, and it is well deserved. You can read more about Lilli's reflections here and I would love to see more Physics faces recognised in this program. Nominations can be made here.

On the topic of our students, I want to draw your attention to a call from Prof Yuri Kivshar for PhB mentors. The PhB program holds a special place in my heart, having been the PhB convenor myself for several years and having mentored quite a few of these outstanding students. These students arrive at ANU with ATARs of 99+ and could genuinely pursue any path they choose. The fact that 12 of them have nominated Physics this year reflects the extraordinary reputation of our school and the appeal of a research-focused education. These students enrich our whole cohort and form a strong core of our exceptional honours program. I encourage anyone who is able sign up as a mentor to support these amazing students to please reach out to Yuri.

This connection to the PhB program makes it especially fitting that this week's research highlight comes from James Monro, who received a Dunbar Honours Scholarship in 2025 and whose honours work has now been published in Physical Review A. The paper, "Ghost projection via focal-field diffraction catastrophes" (Monro, Kingston, and Paganin, Physical Review A 112, 2025), demonstrates that ghost projection can be achieved without physical masks, opening the door to more flexible and hardware-light imaging systems. The implications span optical encryption, structured illumination microscopy, and computational imaging more broadly. Exciting work, James! If you would like your own work featured as a future research highlight, submissions can be made here, or feel free to email me directly.

Finally, those with an interest in the history of our school may enjoy a lovely piece on our news site this week. A biographical memoir of Emeritus Professor John Newton (1924--2016), the former Head of the ANU Department of Nuclear Physics, has just been published in the Historical Records of Australian Science. The memoir, authored by Katja Curtin, Mahananda Dasgupta and David Hinde from NPAA, traces Newton's remarkable journey from a small town outside Manchester to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, and ultimately to ANU, where under his leadership the department became internationally prominent. Newton also played a pivotal role in securing and developing the 14UD accelerator that, fifty years on, continues to operate as a world-class facility at HIAF. It is a wonderful read and a reminder of the deep foundations on which our school is built. You can find the full story here.

Jodie

^{For meeting requests for the Director please use the jodie.bradby@anu.edu.au calendar}

PhB Mentors Needed

This year we have 12 first-year Physics students in the PhB program, some of the smartest high-school graduates from across the country.

Each student is to be assigned an academic mentor for their time at ANU, and I would like to make a call for people willing to take on this role.

This typically involves 1-2 meetings per year to provide advice regarding their degree. All students should do research projects and also enter the Honours Program, so this is an excellent opportunity to expand your research groups with extra hands.

Please contact me to express your interest, and 'read more' for further details about the program.

Yuri Kivshar
^{PhB Physics Coordinator}