For excellence in physics research as well as clear and engaging presentation skills, Joe Zhiyu Chen (UNSW) and Zain Medhi (ANU) have won the 2021 AIP NSW branch Postgraduate Physics Award and Royal Society for NSW Jak Kelly Award, respectively.

The awards were based on the online student presentations given on 9 November from the top physics postgraduate students nominated by each NSW university.

Joe Zhiyu Chen’s talk explained how he was using supercomputing to model galaxy distribution in the presence of neutrino masses.

Zain Mehdi’s presented his work on modelling two types of thermal energy loss during turbulence in quantum fluids.

The other contenders were awarded AIP NSW Postgraduate Excellence Certificates in recognition of nomination by their universities based on their high standing. They included Sobia Rehman (Macquarie Uni), Florian List (USYD), Matthew James (UNE), Simon White (UTS), and Ankit Shrestha (University of Wollongong).

The AIP NSW branch also wishes to congratulate Philip Mai (UNSW) and Bailey Thompson (University of Wollongong) for winning the 2021 Best Graduating Student Prizes. The prizes recognise their clearly outstanding work in their undergraduate Physics programs.

Lastly, ‘Drones, Droids and Robots’ was the theme of this year’s projects in contention for the AIP NSW Most Outstanding Physics K-12 Prizes and Science Teachers Association of NSW Young Scientist Awards.

First prize for ‘Automated Hand Injury Assessment and Treatment Device (MedLab)’ went to Yasiru Puhule-Gamayalag (Cherrybrook Technology High School). ‘Remote Control Raft Cleaner’ by Max Zhao (Barker College) won second prize. Thaddeus Candra (Redeemer Baptist School) was given third prize for ‘The Mars Ninja Warrior Conquers Mount Midoriyama’.