Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

My congratulations to the 2025 DECRA awardees, announced this week;

• Dr Chaohao Chen - Mid-infrared imaging with visible detectors at room temperature
• Dr Kirill Koshelev - Chiral photonics with resonant meta-structures 

After years of concern that the School magnolia had “carked it” some judicious pruning from the ANU gardening team has encouraged new blooms this spring. It had been tradition for our professional staff to celebrate spring with a photo under the tree (and before the possum ate the flowers). It brings me great joy to post the 2024 group photo taken this morning. Fun fact: the plastic flower wired to the tree was added by Em/Prof Neil Manson after the possum ravaged the tree one year and before the annual photo had been taken.  

Speaking of Neil…  Over tea last week Neil and Em/Prof Barry Luther-Davies came to the realisation that between them they represent 101 years of service to the School. To celebrate the personal significance of this milestone they invite us to join them for cake in the Oliphant common room on Wednesday 4th Sept at 10.30.  

My thanks to those who had a go at identifying the large graphite blocks from the last EH. Ross Tranter, John Debs and Rob Elliman all guessed the same as me, suggesting they were used as brushes in the Homo-Polar Generator. If they were, graphite brushes would have been replaced fairly early on with thousands of beautifully hand-crafted mechanical contacts, some of which can be seen in the Level 3 display in Cockcroft.

Two important announcements to finish with.  

• After a bit of a false start the elections for two academic staff will now be posted to eligible staff on 13th Sept, with voting to conclude 27th Sept. As you cast your vote please take time to consider the representative discipline mix at this crucial time for the sciences.
• The 2024 ANYOU pulse survey will run from Monday 2 September to Monday 16 September. This four-minute survey provides employees with opportunity to provide feedback on the ANU employee experience. I strongly encourage all staff to submit a response. Again a critical time for ANU and your voice needs to be heard. 

Stay well,
Tim

PS. The ONI National Intelligence Discovery Grants are now OPEN. Contact our College Research Management team. 

Rae Armantrout Reading and in-Conversation with Physics Professor Ben Buchler

Join us for an evening of poetry featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning poet from the US Rae Armantrout.  

This is a unique opportunity to hear renowned poet Rae Armantrout read from her body of work. She will present selections from her ‘science’ poems and other works, including readings from her latest collection, Go Figure (Wesleyan UP, 2024). The reading will be followed by a Q&A session with Professor Ben Buchler, an expert in quantum and nano-optics from ANU.

When: Thursday 19 September, 6:30pm
Where: Street 2

'Read More' for ticket information.

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Advancing Learning and Teaching Course - CLT

Dates: 2 August – 6 September
Time: 9:00 am – 12:30pm, each Friday

Advancing Learning and Teaching (ALT) is for academics, course convenors and program leaders looking to holistically invigorate and improve the teaching and learning experience in their course(s) through course design and the use of diverse research-led approaches to enhance teaching, student engagement and assessment.

More information and registration details can be found here.

The Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposium (HIAS) abstract submission deadline is 8 September, please submit your abstract by this date.

Abstracts need to be sent to hias.physics@anu.edu.au.

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Use the QR code to register for the HDR student workshop. A link to the supervisor signup is available at the top of the 'Event Description' section.

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Establishing a Community of Practice - Conceptual Frameworks for HDR Candidates

University House has received generous philanthropic support to host a project of research and educational development to support HDR candidates in the development of conceptual frameworks. This academic work is consistent with University House’s commitment, as part of its hailstorm recovery program, to supporting HDR candidates across campus.

The project is being undertaken in partnership with the PVC (Graduate Research) portfolio, including the Directors of HDR Supervision Development and Researcher Development.

We invite ANU colleagues with an interest in this topic to join us in a community of practice to engage with the project.

Please contact: Em Prof Craig McDonald (e: craig.mcdonald@anu.edu.au | m: 0403 653 884)

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Westpac Research Fellowship 2025 - EoI

Please be advised that the Westpac Research Fellowships for 2025 will soon be open for applications. The application period is from 4 July to 28 August 2024 5:00pm AEST. 

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Call For EoI For 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting

Applications are now open for the Science and Industry Endowment Fund - Australian Academy of Science Fellowships to the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. The Fund is to cover attendance of the 74th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting with Nobel Laureates from the field of Chemistry related disciplines.

Please ensure complete EoI’s are returned to the College as follows (note different closing dates for HDR students and ECRs):

• Tuesday 27 August 2024, 5pm - Complete ECR EoIs submitted to the local College Research Office (CRO).
• Thursday 29 August 2024, 5pm - Complete HDR EoIs submitted to either: 
  
  • CoS / CHM via (hdr.cos@anu.edu.au)
  • CECC via (studentservices.cybernetics@anu.edu.au; hdradmin.comp@anu.edu.au; or hdr.eng@anu.edu.au)

EoI Form

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College Hot Desking In Physics

Finance, HR & RM Teams
Thursday Mornings
^{Lv2 Tearoom, Bldg 160}

EVENTS

Optica-SPIE Student Chapter Seminar - 26 August

A Morning Glory in the Lab-19th century mathematics in a fibre laser - Professor Martijn de Sterke

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Departmental seminars

Ms Jessica Wierbik - 28 August
Ion tracks are anisotropic: a case study of the cross-section of swift heavy ion tracks in minerals
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Dr Kostas Mouloudakis - 29 August
Probing spin-fluctuations in dense alkali-metal media
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Dr Maria Hernandez Ruiz - 29 August
Cavity-enhanced atomic magnetometer for micro-bio-magnetic measurements
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