Director's Message

Dear Colleagues,

I hope the week has been good to you. For many of our quantum and nuclear leaders it started with hosting a high-level US trade delegation of 12 leading US Quantum computing companies. After lab tours and presentations from some of our start-up companies the event was opened by (top left to right) Rachel Howard (Trade and Investment Commissioner, Austrade), Erika Olson, US Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim for the United States in Australia, Jessica Richman (Director, Investment, Austrade, San Francisco), (lower left-right) Celia Merzbacher (Executive Director, Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C)) and ANU VC, Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell. My thanks to all those who contributed to making this an engaging visit. We really do shine.

Another great article from Dr Phil Dooley has landed this week on the Physics homepage. Apart from the development itself, what I love about this story is how our environment encourages those pivotal “what if” discussions across disciplines and catalyse really new thinking. https://physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/?NewsID=384

A new Radiation Protection System (RPS) has recently been installed in the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility, see the image below of one of the many critical detection units that integrate into a comprehensive interlock architecture. As well as introducing a Functional Safety System compliant protection system, HIAF staff significantly modernised facility cabling infrastructure, including the installation of a new network that will ensure reliable computer control of the 14UD accelerator. Like many of our safety systems in the School this was a massive team effort. I would like to give my specific thanks to Dr Christian Notthoff for leading the commissioning, and Daniel Tempra and Daniel Bennet for all their focussed skill during design and installation. 

(BTW, I’ll have some other great news about our critical safety systems next week.)

And, to finish off the week, my thanks to Prof Cedric Simenel (Head FTP) for sharing the photo below of Navneet Krishnan, resplendently encloaked and Raghda Abdel Khaleq each presenting their final PhD Seminars. My congratulations to Raghda and Nav on their excellent work and for contributing in many ways to our community.

Have a great weekend,
Tim

An astonishing video produced by the team at Science ANU

Head underground with ANU scientists to an extraordinary dark matter laboratory, buried 1km deep in a gold mine in Stawell, Victoria: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsY8eVjBG54

ANU scientists Lindsey Bignell, Victoria Uttaree Bashu and Zuzana Slavkovska are working on the construction of an extraordinary dark matter detector. Placed 1km underground in an active gold mine in regional Victoria, SUPL (Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory) is the first underground lab in the Southern Hemisphere. It will soon host a dark matter detector consisting of ultra-pure scintillating crystals deployed in a large vessel filled with 12 tonnes of liquid alkyl benzene, which will help to distinguish false signals from those of the hoped-for dark matter.

^{Picture (taken by Nic Vevers, ANU media team): Zuzana (RSPhys, ANU), Victoria (RSPhys, ANU), and Kyle Leaver (University of Adelaide) in the hall that will host the SABRE South dark matter experiment}

Schmidt Science Fellows For 2026 - Applications Due By COB 15 April

RSPhys HDR candidates are invited to apply for the 2026 Schmidt Science Fellows award.

Interested candidates should provide:

• current CV with details of relevant publications, and academic history.
• a letter of recommendation from their supervisor.
• a personal statement outlining their motivations aligning with the selection criteria; and 
• a brief description of their PhD research including PhD topic title.

Please send your nomination documents to hdr.physics@anu.edu.au by COB 15 April 2025

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Join us for an evening of numbers, patterns, and surprises at Math in the Pub, where local experts will explore the beauty of mathematics in a fun and casual setting.

Date: Tues 13 May 2025
Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Smith’s Alternative, 76 Alinga St, Civic

Register

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Inspiring Australia ACT is funding eight positions in the Science Comedy Program for researchers, scientists and post-graduate students.

Positions are being filled now - applicants who apply early are very likely to be selected. 

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Oliphant Bldg. Meeting Rooms - Closed

All Oliphant (Bldg. #60) Meeting rooms will be closed from 12/12/24.

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College Hot Desking In Physics

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

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EVENTS

Departmental seminars

Professor Adrian Sheppard - 9 April
Directionality of Ostwald ripening in underground CO2 (and H2) storage
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Dr Pieter Claeys - 10 April
DUAL-UNITARY CIRCUITS AS MINIMAL MODELS FOR QUANTUM MANY-BODY DYNAMICS
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