Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

Firstly, let me get the announcement out of the way: a reminder that the Research School of Physics (South) will be closed to all staff, students and visitors this Thursday 29 October, with the exception of Building 160 (B160). Access to all other buildings will be restricted for the duration of the closure, so please plan your week accordingly. If you have critical access requirements for any of the locked buildings, please contact Chris Kafer, our Physics Facilities Coordinator.

Now on to a recap of Founder’s Day. Thank you to everyone who made the 2026 Founder’s Day such a great success. I particularly want to acknowledge the hard work of the team behind the scenes. My sincere thanks to James Irwin, Holly Zervos, Nikki Azzopardi, Chris Kafer, Rick Walsh, Graham Rhall, Patrick Romero and Jay Gamage (from the Cross College Support team), and anyone else I might have missed, for their help on the day with set up and pack up. Thank you also to all of our speakers and I hope everyone enjoyed the ice cream and games. And a special thanks to Ed Simpson for hosting our inaugural Founder’s Day trivia competition, which was won by the admin team (next year I might throw in some physics questions just to even up the field!).

It was also wonderful to have our new Chancellor, Dr Gordon de Brouwer, join us for the later part of the technical talks. He generously took questions in a 15-minute Q&A session before marking the soft opening of the connection between the new physics building and the refurbished Oliphant Building. This link represents the culmination of a decade of work by countless staff, and it was a lovely moment to see the Chancellor cut our little ribbon and the School walk down that corridor together for the first time. I truly believe physics at ANU has a bright future, built on our current staff and facilities with our deep history as our foundations.

Congratulations to all this year’s Director’s Award recipients (listed below). Some photos from the day can also be found below, with thanks to Martin Conway.

Director’s Awards 2026

Individual Staff Awards

• Ross Tranter
• Nikki Azzopardi

RSPhys Team Award

• Scientific Relocation Team: Michael Blacksell, Graham Rhall, Adam Zupanic, Lachlan Gair and team

PhD Student Publication Award

• Neil Lu, for “GW250114 reveals signatures of post-merger black-hole horizon” (Nature 2026)

EMCR Publication Award

• Kirill Koshelev, for “Chiral Quasi-Bound States in the Continuum on the Verge of the Light Cone” (Nano Letters 2026)

External Award

• Neeraj Dhiman (Campus Environment)

Team Collaboration Award (Internal and External)

• Media Team: Phil Dooley, Nic Vevers and Amanda Cox

Jodie

College of Science and Medicine Awards for Service

The College of Science and Medicine Awards for Service recognise the achievements, successes and contributions of our colleagues and celebrate the positive impact individuals and teams have on the School, College and University community.

Nominations can be made online and close at 11:55pm on Sunday 15 November. 

Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics Summer Research Program 2026-2027 | Applications Open Now

The ANU Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics hosts a Summer Research Program at its HQ at The Australian National University.

The program runs over 8 weeks from 14th December 2026 until 12th February 2027 and best suits third-year, Honours and Masters students in Physics, Astrophysics and Engineering, currently enrolled at all universities across the country.

Payment of $750/week is on offer to successful applicants. In addition, a travel allowance for students based outside of ACT.

Applications close 1st Nov 2026.

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2027 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics – Open For Applications

Applications are now open for the 2027 CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics.

The $6,000 travel scholarship aims to connect the brightest young physicists or mathematicians to a leading research centre overseas or in Australia.

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 the graduate embarking on a research career and Australian science.

Apply Now

Applications close: Friday 27 November 2026

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iLAuNCH ANU Space Health Team Seeking Volunteers

Would you like to support space health research? 

Researchers from the iLAuNCH ANU Space Health team are seeking volunteers aged 18-55 to participate in a study supporting the development of next-generation wearable health monitoring technologies for space medicine.

Participants will complete a short cycling exercise while wearing non-invasive sensors that measure bio-signals such as heart rate, temperature, blood flow and movement. The session takes less than one hour and will be conducted in the Leonard Huxley building. Participants will receive a $20 Coffee LAB voucher as thanks for their time.

To learn more or register your interest, contact SpaceHealth.physics@anu.edu.au or complete the study sign-up form: Space Health Bio-signal Study Sign Up Form. Eligibility criteria apply.

College Hot Desking In Physics

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

RSPhys Executive Meeting Minutes

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