Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

My thanks go to the supreme efforts of James Irwin, Uyen Nguyen and the College Finance Team for revamping our School budget model. My appreciation also goes to the many academic staff who worked through this difficult process with us.  After the few remaining issues are finalised and the Heads have meet, we will publish the detailed 2020 guidelines on the intranet, together with high-level budgets and drivers for 2019. Transition budgets are never trivial but I feel this will lead to a considerably more equitable position.

Last week, Graeme Cornish forwarded draft chemical ordering procedures to Heads.  These will ensure we standardise with ANU policy and I invite any feedback through your Heads.

Professor Lawrence Cram will present an introduction to world rankings on Tuesday (details right).  This will kick off formation of the review response working parties, and is a great opportunity for early and mid-career researchers to build their service contribution, and most importantly help shape the future of the School.

No surprise, but many PDRs are way, way overdue.  These are important discussions and will help your supervisor and Head develop their next 3-6-9, to be held in second quarter of 2020 after the School Operational Plan is finalised early next year.  Please indicate how your objectives align with the existing Department 3-6-9, and how that should evolve with your input. 

This week’s pic was taken at DQS last Tuesday with some of the students standing with Kathlene Cotterell, wife of the late Len Cotterell, a long serving electronics technician back in the days of the Faculty. Kathlene remembers the tireless late nights the students commit to their studies and made a donation in support of the improvement of student tea room amenities. We are very grateful to Kathlene and it was a pleasure to fondly remember Len.

Have a great week.

Cheers,
Tim

meriSTEM Volunteering Hour

The meriSTEM team would like to share a huge thank you to the 37 ANU staff and students who volunteered their time on Wednesday evening (21 August 2019). Over one hour, 95 transcripts associated with the videos in meriSTEM’s Year 11 and 12 Physics course were completed.

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The Australian Academy of Science invites nominations from Australian-based early career researchers to attend the 70th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau (interdisciplinary), to be held in Lindau, Germany, 28 June – 3 July 2020.

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Evidence overwhelmingly shows structural barriers to women in STEM fields, and suggests that the onus cannot be on women alone to confront the gender bias in our community. As one of the first cohorts of job candidates, hiring committees, grant and manuscript reviewers, journal editors and academic decision-makers to be empowered by the evidence, we must ask ourselves, how will we make use of these data?

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About 900 million years ago, this black hole ate a very dense star, known as a neutron star, like Pac-man -- possibly snuffing out the star instantly," said Susan Scott.

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NLPC Day Out

A group of NLPC colleagues headed out to Honeysuckle Creek last weekend and enjoyed a walk up to Booroomba Rocks. A great time was had by all.

ANU Centre for Gravitational Physics in collaboration with OzGrav and ACT National Science Week held a live stream event for public on Saturday 17th August at Menzies Library, ANU. 

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Technical Highlights of Stage 1

Now that’s a crane!  All went smoothly over the weekend and there will be a time lapse video of the crane going up on the intranet shortly.  Our intention is to have a Stage 1 fact every week, I’ve got heaps, but if you want something in particular please let me or Simon know.

The shoring wall retains the existing buildings in place with 280, 15 metre deep reinforced concrete piles and 143 rock anchors.  Some rock anchors are equipped with built-in strain gauges for ongoing monitoring of the wall.

School Review

Bibliometric Discussion
by Prof Lawrence Cram
Tuesday 27 August 2019
12:30 - 1:30
Finkel Theatre, JCSMR Bldg 131

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August Seminars

28 August
Mr Jingshi Yan
Control of emission of 2D semiconductors by photonic nanostructures
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29 August
Dr Duk-Yong Choi
Materials and nanofabrication of photonic devices
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29 August
Mr Hijaz Hasnan
Improved Characterization of Thin Bed and Low-Resistivity/Low-Contrast Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

30 August
Mr Shaun Lung
Unconventional Photonics with Dielectric Metasurfaces
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Further details about School Seminars or Events can be found on the RSPE Intranet and School News and Events Page.