Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to NAIDOC week, a week to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The link is the best way to navigate to the week’s activities, many of which are online.  

The Moon to Mars Initiative has landed big time at CGA! Of the $40M awarded I reckon CGA can rightfully claim to be one of the most successful of the recipients. Foremost, congratulations to Prof Kirk McKenzie and his team for winning a spectacular $6.2M grant together with industry partner CEA Technologies for an innovative laser technology instrument to support NASA with space-based sensing of variation in Earth’s gravity. Also, my congratulations to A/Prof Francis Bennet (RSAA/AITC) and team for their "Australian Deep Space Optical Ground Station Network” funded to $4.5M with industry partner Liquid Instruments (CGA affiliated). And, I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the technology in Advanced Navigation’s “Project LUNA – Navigation and Guidance Technology for Lunar Exploration” ($5.3M) comes from their recent acquisition of Via Photonics, yes, also originating in CGA. Well done everyone at CGA, a fabulous example of translational physics after decades of fundamental work.

A quick reminder that there will be a College of Science Forum on Tuesday, 4 July, 12.30-1.30pm in the new Physics Auditorium at which the Dean will provide an overview of the College of Science’s presentation from the recent ‘Performance and Planning Dialogues’, and will be available to answer any questions that people might have. Please register for the forum here.

Later in the week, Kambri will host a large part of “Unchartered  Territories” - Across the ACT for 10 days, artists, entrepreneurs and researchers will intersect to push the boundaries of what is possible. MakerSpace won an ACT Government grant to establish a pop-up, right in the middle of activities. Come and visit. The program is a great mix of contemporary topics and well worth a look through.

Well done Michael Blacksell (EU) who claims the Freddo Frog for being the first to spot “the hidden Nikki”.

Cheers,
Tim

Congratulations to the nominations for each College for the 2023 3MT ANU final:

College of Science
Ryan O’Donnell (RSB)
Logan Davis (RSPhys)
Saishyam Ramesh (RSB)

College of Health & Medicine 
Nicholas Bariesheff (JCSMR)
Terri Warner (SMP)

Peoples Choice winners:
Ash Pascale (RSPhys)
Rakshanya Sekar (JCSMR)

Register to attend the the ANU final. Or register to watch via livestream here.

“Super-SIMS to characterize ultra-low 40K concentrations in NaI crystals” by Dominik Koll (NPAA) received 7500 AUD in funding from the CDM Special Initiatives funding for ECRs/Students. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics positively evaluated the proposal which will aim to establish a new analytical method to detect lowest concentrations of radio-potassium in NaI crystals for SABRE. 

Super-SIMS is the combination of a traditional secondary-ion mass spectrometer with an accelerator mass spectrometer to achieve highest sensivities for (stable) isotope detection.

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Paid Internship Opportunity With Instats

Instats is a global leader in offering research methods workshops across the social, health/medical, and life sciences.

Instats invites applications from ambitious PhD candidates in the social, health/medical, and life sciences for an enriching internship opportunity. Internships at Instats are centered around research-driven methodologies, and helping Instats deliver cutting-edge research methods workshops for the research communities that Instats serves.

For more information and how to apply, please 'read more'.

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With School holidays upon us, you may have extra reasons to use the Physics Parent room – Room C4.36 in the Cockroft building. It is a pleasant space with 3 separate and private breastfeeding partitioned areas as well as a play space for toddlers and young children, and a kitchenette. For access you can obtain a key from the Oliphant reception.

As You See It! Photo Competition

The annual CoS and CHM As You See It! Photography Competition opens on 3 July 2023. The competition aims to showcase what science really looks like through the eyes of alumni, staff and students.

Be it the view out your office window, images from the field, or shots through the microscope, the opportunities are endless. Snap a picture, add a caption, and submit it here.

Westpac Research Fellowship 2024 - Calling For EOIs

The Westpac Scholars Trust is partnering with Australia’s leading research universities to offer up to two Westpac Research Fellowships. These Fellowships offer early career researchers a unique opportunity to support their ground-breaking research, provide access to networks, open career pathways and provide global experiences. 

Please notify College Research Office by Wednesday 12 July, with written confirmation of support of your School Director, if you wish to apply for this funding opportunity.

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DIN Roadshow - ACT Region Showcase

The roadshow brings together Defence relevant industries, government, and education, to engage around upcoming opportunities for collaboration in the Region and beyond.

Date: Monday, 17 July 2023 
Time: 9.30-15.00
Location: Physics Auditorium, 160 Mills Road

In-person event, please register here (registration closes 10 July 2023)

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College Hot Desking In Physics

HR Team
Mondays & Tuesdays
^{Office 4.31 (Link bldg)}

Finance & RM Teams
Thursday Mornings
^{Bldg 160}

2023 Wall Planners

EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Mr Wein Lau - 4 July
Modelling of nuclear fission with an exact time-dependent generator coordinate method
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Dr Paul Fraser - 18 July
Predicting stellar nuclear reaction rates with a multi-channel scattering formalism
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CoS Staff Forum - 4 July

This Forum is being hosted by the Dean to provide an update on the College of Science priorities and plans for the coming year.

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