Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

I hope you had a chance to take advantage of the wonderful weather.

I have just attended with the University Executive and pending the official announcement we will down-grade the COVID alert from Orange- high to Amber – medium. This means mask-wearing is still mandatory, even inside until further notice. Heads of Department can assist staff and students in discussions around access for urgent or essential work. Advice on travel approvals to follow shortly.

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of showing the new Minister for Science, the Hon. Melissa Price around the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility and for a whirlwind tour of the new building. The Minister also sits in Cabinet representing the Defence Infrastructure portfolio. The image above shows Professors Nanda Dasgupta (NPAA, Director HIAF) and Brian Schmidt discussing the capabilities at ANU with the Minister.  

Last week I mentioned the passing of Professor Rod Jory, alumni, past staff member and founder of the National Youth Science Forum and Science Olympiads program. His service will be held tomorrow, Tuesday 26th of October at 11am, at Clavering Park, Wolumla and webcast at;

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88656806695

Finally, I’d like to draw your attention to some of the interesting talks coming up in the next week (see below).

Have a good week,
Tim

November is... Academic Writing Month - #AcWriMo

Need to get some writing done before the end of the year? November is academic writing month! Join the Researcher Development community online for a festival of writing, set your writing goals and have some company along the way. We will provide online writing sessions, a register for recording your output, and lots of writing workshops to help you reach your goals.

Brought to you by ANU Researcher Development team: Professor Inger Mewburn (@thesiswhisperer), Dr Cally Guerin and Dr Derek Panchuk.

» read more

Dark Matter Day Live Gather.town Event - Saturday 30th October

The ARC Centre of Excellence in Dark Matter Particle Physics is inviting its members and the public to a live (kid-friendly) event on Saturday 30th October – 2:00-4:30pm* (AEDT) help celebrate Dark Matter Day.

» read more

Cos+CHM IDEA Community of Practice Seminar

Merryn McKinnon
Thursday 28 October, 1-2pm

"Expectations versus evidence: What equity and inclusion research in STEM fields has shown"

Some argue that to achieve gender equity, science departments have to hire 50% of female-identifying and gender diverse academics. However, this argument overlooks the significance and persistence of gender segregation in science aspirations among children, adolescents and young adults…what to do to bridge gender segregation is in principle well-known – the challenge is to implement such all-encompassing changes.

Zoom link 
Meeting ID: 822 2636 3414 
Password: 414 030

» read more

Understanding Pensions - A Webcast by UniSuper Management

Thursday, 28 October 2021 at 5:30PM

When you’re thinking about retirement, it can be tough to understand the options available to you.

If you’re interested in finding out about in the next chapter, our Understanding Pensions webcast will discuss the different types products available, and the considerations when selecting a product that’s right for you. 

» read more

ANSTO scholarships for Australian citizen prospective HDR students for the topic: Ultra-high temperature ceramics

Closing date 31 October 2021

Applications now open

NCI is looking for Associate Training Officers to join the training team. These are casual positions at the ANU5 level. Associate Training Officers will be responsible for jointly running workshops with NCI staff on various topics such as parallel computing, programming and debugging, data analysis, ML applications on HPC, and GPUs. We strongly encourage applications from PhD and postdoctoral students and early career researchers with knowledge and expertise in computational domains.

» read more

ANU Templates

Do you need ANU letterhead, PowerPoint slides, or an ANU minutes template?

Sign in to ANU SharePoint for current ANU templates.

Need to Schedule a Meeting with the Director?

For ANU Outlook users
Open a new invite for Director.Physics@anu.edu.au, and use Scheduling Assistant to propose a mutually convenient time and send.  

For all others
Please send an email request to Director.Physics@anu.edu.au 

Tim will reply to any meeting requests ASAP

RSPhys Store

Stores will be physically staffed, though operating at reduced capacity with no face to face interactions. 

» read more

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Ms Sungyeon Hong - 27 October
Designing topological defects in 2D glassy systems
» read more

Mr Kirill Koshelev - 27 October
Advanced trapping of light in resonant dielectric metastructures for nonlinear optics
» read more

School Seminar Program - 4 November

Scalable and effective use of virtual reality for physics education - Dr John Debs

» read more

HDR Progress Milestones

Students and supervisors can access information on HDR progress milestone requirements on the School Intranet.

From Previous Weeks...

2021 College of Science Awards for Service Nominations

2021 Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor's Annual Awards Nominations

PhD Top-up Scholarships for Ocean and Sea Ice Modelling

Update from the Chief Operating Officer - our pathway towards a COVID-normal campus life