The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP)’s highest accolade, the Harrie Massey Medal has been awarded to Distinguished Professor Susan Scott for her ‘groundbreaking discoveries in the fields of general relativity, cosmology and gravitational wave science, and for her leading role in Australia’s participation in the first detection of gravitational waves’.

The AIP, jointly with the UK Institute of Physics (IoP), recognised Professor Scott, who is a Chief Investigator in the OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence and a theme leader with the ANU Centre for Gravitational Astronomy (CGA).

“It really is a great honour to be awarded the Harrie Massey Medal jointly by the AIP and the IoP. Having spent four years working with the research group of Roger Penrose in Oxford in the UK and then coming to ANU and commencing Australian activities in gravitational-wave data analysis, I feel that the formative part of my career had its roots in both countries.”

The biennial award recognises outstanding contributions to physics by an Australian citizen working anywhere in the world, or an Australian resident for work undertaken in Australia. 

Established in 1990, the Harrie Massey Medal has been awarded to some of Australia’s most distinguished physicists. Professor Scott is only the second woman to receive the honour in its 36-year history. 

Helping make gravitational wave history 

A theoretical and mathematical physicist, Professor Scott’s research spans general relativity, cosmology, gravitational waves, black holes and the fundamental nature of spacetime. 

In the CGA, she leads the General Relativity Theory and Data Analysis Group and has played a major role in establishing and advancing Australia’s contribution to the international effort to detect gravitational waves. 

That decades-long effort culminated in 2015 when the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) made the first direct detection of gravitational waves, produced by the collision of two black holes more than a billion years ago. 

The discovery confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and opened an entirely new way of observing the Universe. 

Professor Scott was an Australian leader in the international team behind the discovery, with her team at ANU contributing vital components to the LIGO Data Analysis System through which the first detection signal was processed. 

Through OzGrav and our contributing universities, Australia now plays a leading role internationally in gravitational-wave detection and gravitational-wave physics. This is an achievement which we can all be proud of. We plan to build on this important role, and to pursue our goal of siting a gravitational wave detector at home in Australia.” 

Her contribution to the first detection was recognised in 2020 when she was one of four Australian gravitational wave scientists jointly awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Science. 

Since that first detection, gravitational wave astronomy has transformed scientists’ ability to study some of the most extreme events in the Universe, including collisions between black holes and neutron stars. 

Dr Scott has remained at the forefront of the field, continuing her research into gravitational waves, general relativity and the structure of spacetime, while helping build Australia’s capability and international leadership in gravitational wave science. 

A highly decorated career in Australian physics 

The Harrie Massey Medal adds to an extensive list of national and international recognition for Professor Scott’s contributions to physics. 

She was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2016 and a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2020. 

Her honours include the 2020 Dirac Medal in Theoretical Physics, the 2020 Prime Minister’s Prize for Science, the Royal Society of New South Wales’ Walter Burfitt Prize and the Australian Institute of Physics’ Walter Boas Medal in 2022. 

In 2023, she received the Australian Academy of Science’s Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal for her contributions to gravitational physics, followed by the Australian Mathematical Society’s George Szekeres Medal in 2024. 

Professor Scott has also received significant international recognition, including becoming the first Australian elected as a Fellow of the International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation and the first Australian to receive the European Academy of Sciences’ Blaise Pascal Medal in Physics. 

As the 2026 Harrie Massey Medal and Prize recipient, Professor Scott will be invited to present a plenary talk on her research at the next AIP Congress and write an article for publication in Australian Physics. The President of the IoP will present the award to her at the AIP Congress in Sydney in December.

The Harrie Massey Medal was established in 1990 as a gift from the Institute of Physics in the United Kingdom to mark the 25th anniversary of the Australian Institute of Physics becoming a separate institution. Only one Medal is awarded in each biennial round.