The AIP National Executive team met recently at ANSTO in Lucas Heights, Sydney, to discuss the strategic planning of the organisation, including exploring ethical banking options, advocacy efforts, and membership matters.

The agenda also included drafting a new diversity and inclusion statement for the organisation, to be added to the AIP website soon.

We are also excited about the two national AIP awards to be made available for the first time this year: the Women in Leadership Medal and the Physics Communication Award.

• Read more about these and other national AIP awards on offer here.

This was the first face-to-face meeting of the Executive team in almost three years owing to the pandemic.

The day meeting featured lunch with physicists from the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering and Centre for Accelerator Science as well as a tour of the OPAL reactor with Dr Mark Ho.

“The OPAL pool top was a hive of activity during a reactor maintenance period, but alas, no Cherenkov radiation this time,” said our AIP National honorary secretary Kirrily Rule, who works at ANSTO as an instrument scientist.

• Learn about the OPAL reactor in this video featuring Kirrily.

Dr Ho, who is Vice President of the Australian Nuclear Association, recently gave a talk about the latest in advanced reactor designs at the Big Science of Gen IV Power Reactors event, co-hosted by the AIP NSW branch and others.

The National Executive team would also like to thank ANSTO CEO Mr Shaun Jenkinson for hosting us at the nandin Innovation Centre. The nandin centre is a thriving hub of science and tech entrepreneurs, graduates and start-ups who develop solutions to unmet challenges in our world.

The National Executive team meets quarterly, alternating between online meetings and in-person visits to universities and labs.  With the easing of travel restrictions, we are looking forward to visiting more members at their institutions.

Photo: The AIP National Executive team. Credit – Kirrily Rule.

From left to right – Jodie Bradby, Gerd Schröder-Turk, Stephan Rachel, Nicole Bell, Judith Pollard, Kirrily Rule, Tim van der Laan, Joanna Turner, Stephen Collins.