Director's Message
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue10 1–30 November 2020
On 28 October we held the official launch for the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics. This was the first significant University function I have attended since COVID-19 first closed the ANU and it was good to be engaging with colleagues again in person - albeit while having to respect the restrictions on physical distancing and mixing at gatherings that are necessary to keep COVID at bay. The event was attended by the Vice-Chancellor and, briefly, by the Chief Scientist (before he was called back to Senate hearings). Known to only a few was the fact that the apparent coincidence of the launch being held on the same evening the Prime Minister's Prizes for Science were to be announced was not merely fortuitous, but rather a Cunning Plan! Thus most of us were surprised as well as delighted to discover that CGA Director, Prof. David McClelland, and another CGA founder-member, Prof. Susan Scott, were revealed as co-winners (with Emeritus Prof. David Blair of UWA and Prof. Peter Veitch of U.Adelaide) of the major award of the evening, the Prime Minister's Prize for Science. This was a fabulous way to launch the new Centre and underlined the strategic significance of gravitational astrophysics as a new scientific field for ANU and Australia. I shared RSAA's warmest congratulations with David and Susan!
You will now have seen the timeline for changes being made within the College of Science in response to the budget cuts for 2021. RSAA will be announcing its plans in the 'second wave' of Schools and Centres during the week of 11 January. We have decided to hold back in part so that we are sure of the School's financial position (which continues to evolve somewhat as the ANU fleshes out the budget details for 2021 and develops a financial model for 2022 and beyond) and in part because we can then learn from the experience of the Schools that announce changes in the 'first wave' during the week of 16 November. We are able to hold off a little because the cuts to RSAA's budget are rather less than those suffered by some of the Schools in the College of Science and we are confident we can meet the budget restrictions without having to act as rapidly as some Schools are obliged to do. The Director, School Manager, and RSAA Executive are closely monitoring the School's financial situation and will move carefully and in the light of all available information and experience when deciding what changes may need to be made.
In other good news this week, we belatedly celebrated Ken Freeman's selection in February this year as one of the inaugural group of 'Legacy' Fellows of the American Astronomical Society (one of just four non-Americans in this distinguished group). We also heard that the ABC's Catalyst program "Black Hole Hunters", which was hosted by Prof. Tamara Davis (UQ and included RSAA's own Chris Wolf and Brad Tucker as two of the featured researchers, has won the Broadcast and New Media Prize in the American Institute of Physics 2020 Science Communications Awards. Finally, it gives me great pleasure to announce that Francis Bennet, Luca Casagrande and Tony Travouillon were successful in their applications for promotion to Level D. Congratulations to all - it's great to see RSAA staff being recognised for their achievements!
