Biography

Ed Simpson is a physicist at the Australian National University researching nuclear reactions and their applications.  He completed his PhD in nuclear theory at the University of Surrey in 2009, and has since held research positions at the University of Surrey, the University of York, and the Australian National University.  He was winner of the inaugural UK Institute of Physics Nuclear Physics Group Prize, and recipiant of a 2018 Young Tall Poppies Award.  He has won two ARC Discovery Project Grants and computer time from the National Computational Infrastructure.

His research spans the theory and measurement of nuclear collisions, applied to a wide range of topics including:

• Nuclear fusion
• Nuclear structure
• Radiation effects in space
• Proton and hadron beam cancer therapy
• Astrophysics

Further details can be found on the Publications tab and at my ORCID, Publons and Google Scholar pages.

Grants and awards

Grants won include:

• Cluster Dynamics in Nuclear Fusion, ARC Discovery Projects 2019 ($510,000)
• Nuclear Reaction Cross Sectiosn for Hadron Therapy, National Computational Infrastructure 2018 (1760,000 CPU Hours)
• Quantum thermalisation: A new framework for nuclear collisions, ARC Discovery Projects 2016 ($643,500)
• ANU Early Career Researcher Travel Grant 2015 ($3,000)
• Ian Potter Foundation Travel Grants 2015 ($2,000)

Awards include:

• Nominated for an ANU College of Science Award for Excellence in Supervision (2019)
• Winner of a Young Tall Poppy Award from the Australian Institue of Policy and Science (2018)
• Research School of Physics Director's Award for Contributions to the Promotion of the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (2018)
• Winner of the UK Institute of Physics Nuclear Physics Group Prize (2010)

Teaching

Ed is widely involved in undergraduate education at ANU, including:

• Lecturer for the Quantum Scattering Honours course (PHYS4304, 2015-present)
• Responsible for the Numerical Quantum Mechanics Adavanced Studies Extension and Honours Pathway Option for the second year Quantum Mechanics course (PHYS2013, 2018-present)
• Supervision of undergraduate Advanced Studies Course projects (10 students since 2014)
• Supervision of Third Year Research Topics in Physics projects (4 students since 2016)
• Supervision of a Capstone Engineering Project, offered by the Research School of Engineering (6 students, 2019)
• Supervision of Honours projects in Physics and Engineering (two students, 2018/2019)

Outreach

Ed has developed an online tour of the Australian National University Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility In the tour you explore Australia's largest ion accelerator, find out about the research undertaken and see exactly what the middle of a 15 million volt particle accelerator looks like!

Ed has also developed two onlinue nuclide charts.  Nuclide charts allow us to display the properties of nuclei as a function of the numbers of protons and neutrons, and explore how these properties change as we add or remove protons and neutrons.  The charts are designed to be easy to use and can generate graphics in a variety of different formats for reuse in publications, outreach and education.

The Colourful Nuclide Chart

The 3D Nuclide Chart