Founder's Day - 2013
Location
Audience

Program of presentations
8:30am | Technical displays, Cockcroft Building |
---|---|
9:00am | Professor Stephen Buckman, Director |
Director’s Presentation |
|
9:45am | Cormac Corr, Physics Education Centre |
Pathways to Change: Evolving Educational Culture It is a time of change within the university. By 2020, educational excellence must parallel research excellence. RSPE is responding to this. There has been a cultural change in how teaching is perceived and also a change in the way teaching is delivered. This presentation will highlight those changes. |
|
10:00am |
Vince Craig, Hongjie An & many others, Applied Maths |
Bubble Lifetimes: Their Importance for Nanobubbles, New Medical Technologies and the Foaming of Beer and Champagne I will describe our recent research on nanobubbles and how we have resolved the mystery surrounding their extensive lifetimes by correcting a 60 year old theory. This has implications not only for incipient medical technologies used to treat a range of serious diseases but also resolves the important question as to how long you have to wait after dropping your beer before it is safe to open it. |
|
10:15am | Christine Charles, PRL SP3 |
The Largest Space Simulation Facility in the Southern Hemisphere In collaboration with the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, SP3 is building a huge thermal vacuum chamber at Mount Stromlo to test our series of plasma thrusters for space vehicles. This major piece of National Infrastructure has already attracted requests from overseas clients and will be a flagship for the Advanced Instrumentation and Technology Centre. |
|
10:30am | Niko Eckerskorn, Laser Physics |
An Optical Funnel: Enhanced Particle Injection for Coherent Diffractive Imaging Current particle injection methods for x-ray coherent diffractive imaging are incredibly inefficient. Our solution is to use an optical funnel, a hollow core laser beam collimating a stream of particles with radiation pressure. |
|
10:45am | Morning Tea in the Courtyard |
Leonard Huxley Building courtyard | |
11:00am | Peter Bouwknegt, Theoretical Physics |
On the Classification of Topological Insulators Topological insulators and superconductors are many-fermion systems possessing an unusual band structure that leads to a bulk band gap as well as topologically protected gapless extended surface modes. It was recently realised that deformation classes of gapped Hamiltonians are naturally classified by K-theory. This classification parallels the classification of the 2 complex and 8 real symmetry classes of Hamiltonians (the '10-fold way') of Altland and Zirnbauer, and naturally leads to a periodic table of topological insulators. In this talk I will give a brief overview of these developments, as well as discuss some open problems. |
|
11:15am | Isabelle Staude, Nonlinear Physics Centre |
Magnetic Nanophotonics: Teaching Light a Second Language Light - being an electromagnetic wave - consists of propagating electric and magnetic fields. But, do we actually ever see the magnetic component? It seems not, as most optical devices, including the human eye, are only able to talk to the electric field. However, by "teaching" optical nanostructures a second language they are now able to talk to the magnetic component of light just as well. Quite surprisingly, a natural implementation of this concept is provided by low-loss all-dielectric nanoparticles, paving a way towards improved devices that can exploit the full range of light-matter interactions. |
|
11:30am | Clive Michael, PRL TORO |
Waves Dumping Particles: Fusion Research on Large and Small Scale Experiments High frequency plasma waves are a current topic in fusion research as they may reduce the fusion burn due to resonance with alpha particles produced in the fusion reaction. I will showcase research that I was involved in from the Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak in the UK on detecting these waves and their resonant particles. The ANU H-1 Heliac, despite being colder, exhibits similar plasma waves and present research within the department is focused on finding the structure and drive of these waves, thus contributing to the global fusion research effort. |
|
11:45am | John Debs, Quantum Science |
The Role of Quantum Science in Precision Measurement Precision measurement is arguably at the heart of advancements in science and technology. Humankind's most precise measurements rely on quantum phenomena, and I will discuss how quantum science and work at DQS enables precision measurement in areas ranging from the detection gravitational waves, to detecting iron ore deposits in the ground. |
|
12:00pm | Maarten Vos, AMPL |
A Homage to the Electron Gun The last time you had an electron gun in your hand was probably when you brought your old TV to the tip. The electron gun is clearly out-of-fashion and is hence often overlooked as a tool to explore new physics. I will give some examples demonstrating that experiments based on the “good-old electron gun” can sometimes compete very well with large-scale experiments using the most intense neutron sources, large synchrotrons or GeV particle accelerators. |
|
12:15pm | Avi Shalav, EME |
Controlling Corrosion to Make Nanowires At high temperatures many metals and other materials are easily damaged via corrosive oxidation processes. By understanding the chemical reactions occurring at the surface and selecting an appropriate ambient atmosphere, conditions exist where dense arrays of oxide nanowires can be readily grown. These oxide nanowires, grown via a simple one step thermal process, are suited for a range of emerging electronic applications, including gas sensing, photocatalysis and ultracapacitors. |
|
12:30pm | Duc Luong, Nuclear Physics |
The Power of Four Nucleon The extraordinary stability of both the helium atom and its nucleus (the α-particle) have the same quantum-mechanical origin: the filling of the lowest energy state by a pair of electrons, or pairs of protons and neutrons respectively. This stability can cause nuclei to behave as though they contain α-particles. Recent experiments at the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility at the ANU have shown that α-clustering can strongly affect reaction dynamics as well as structure of light nuclei. |
|
1:00pm – 3:00pm | Founder’s Day Luncheon |
Please join us for the Founder’s Day Luncheon barbeque in the RSPE Tearoom, Oliphant Building |
Updated: 26 March 2023/ Responsible Officer: Director, RSPhys/ Page Contact: Physics Webmaster