Congratulations to Professor Michael Edmund Tobar, The University of Western Australia, who was awarded the Harrie Massey Medal and Prize.

Michael created and undertook numerous new precision measurement techniques and experiments in the field of time and frequency, and low temperature quantum physics, with the goal of solving some of the biggest questions in fundamental physics. These led to several translational outcomes.

The Massey Medal is a gift of the Institute of Physics (UK) to the AIP. It will be presented at AIP Congress in December by IOP President Elect Michele Dougherty.

The biennial Award recognises outstanding contributions to physics made by an Australian citizen working anywhere in the world, or by an Australian resident for work carried out in Australia.

More about the award.

Congratulations to the following members who have been recognised with AIP Awards for outstanding accomplishments in research, leadership, communication, and industry.

Professor Joanne Etheridge (Monash University) has been awarded the Walter Boas Medal for Excellence in Research, recognising her “development of electron scattering methods to determine the structure of condensed matter at the atomic scale and the application of these methods to understand structure-property relationships in functional materials.”

Associate Professor David Simpson (University of Melbourne) has been awarded the Alan Walsh Medal for Service to Industry. A/Prof Simpson’s award recognises his work in the “industry translation and commercialisation of diamond quantum sensor technology.”

Dr Judith Pollard (University of Adelaide) has been awarded the Award for Outstanding Service to Physics in Australia, recognising her “outstanding work as the Australian Institute of Physics Honorary Treasurer and for services to Australian physics”.

Professor Jodie Bradby (Australian National University) has been awarded the Women in Leadership Medal, recognising her“leadership at the Australian Institute of Physics including strategic advocacy and community building at the national level and for her long-standing work in gender equity.”

Associate Professor Suzie Sheehy (University of Melbourne) has been awarded the Physics Communication Award, recognising her “narrative-based, human-centric approach to engage millions of readers, viewers and listeners throughout her career-long commitment to physics communication, raising the profile of physics with audiences of a diverse range of ages and backgrounds in Australia and internationally”.

Dr Cullan Howlett (University of Queensland) has been awarded Ruby Payne-Scott Award for Excellence in Early-Career Research, recognising “his development, leadership, and analysis of the largest galaxy surveys in the world, leading to new insights into the fundamental ingredients and forces that make up our Universe.”

Dr Matthew Berrington (Australian National University) has been awarded the Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics, recognising the most outstanding PhD thesis in physics or its applications by a student from an Australian University, for the thesis titled: “Optical studies of magnetically ordered erbium crystals.”

Sophie A. Young (University of Tasmania) has been awarded the Thomas H Laby Medal, recognising the most outstanding Honours or Masters thesis in physics by a student from an Australian University, for the thesis titled: “Free-Free Absorption in Young Radio Galaxies”.

These awards, plus the Harrie Massey Medal (to be announced soon), will be presented at the AIP Congress in December.

Early bird discounts for the Congress have been extended one week and close Friday 6 September. Register here.

Associate Professor David Simpson(University of Melbourne) has been awarded the Alan Walsh Medal for Service to Industry. A/Prof Simpson’s award recognises his work in the “industry translation and commercialisation of diamond quantum sensor technology.”

He currently leads the development of diamond-based magnetic microscopy techniques to explore the magnetic properties of biological systems at the single cell level. In 2013, Dr Simpson was part of the team awarded, The University of NSW Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Research, for work on quantum probes in biology. His broader research interests include quantum measurement, nanoscale magnetic resonance spectroscopy and the material properties of diamond.

Dr Judith Pollard (University of Adelaide) has been awarded the Award for Outstanding Service to Physics in Australia, recognising her “outstanding work as the Australian Institute of Physics Honorary Treasurer and for services to Australian physics”.

She is a past winner of the AIP’s Education Medal, in recognition of her achievements in improving physics education at universities in Australia. Judith’s emphasis has been on making physics real for university students.

Associate Professor Suzie Sheehy(University of Melbourne) has been awarded the Physics Communication Award, recognising her “narrative-based, human-centric approach to engage millions of readers, viewers and listeners throughout her career-long commitment to physics communication, raising the profile of physics with audiences of a diverse range of ages and backgrounds in Australia and internationally”.

When she’s not developing new particle accelerators for applications in medicine, she is communicating science to the masses. Her 2018 TED talk has been viewed over 1.8M times and she has been an expert TV presenter for a number of Discovery Channel shows including four seasons of Impossible Engineering. Suzie has shared real-life demonstrations and experiments with hundreds of thousands of audience members. In 2022 she published her first popular science book: The Matter of Everything: Twelve Experiments that Changed Our World (Bloomsbury).

Dr Cullan Howlett (University of Queensland) has been awarded Ruby Payne-Scott Award for Excellence in Early-Career Research, recognising “his development, leadership, and analysis of the largest galaxy surveys in the world, leading to new insights into the fundamental ingredients and forces that make up our Universe.”

Current observations suggest 95% of our Universe consists of elusive dark matter and dark energy. These are detectable by the influence they have on the light from galaxies, stars and that permeates the background Universe itself, but they don't emit light themselves and we are yet to understand what they are. Cullan Howlett’s research seeks to uncover these using the largest galaxy surveys in the world.

Sophie A. Young (University of Tasmania) has been awarded the Thomas H Laby Medal, recognising the most outstanding Honours or Masters thesis in physics by a student from an Australian University, for the thesis titled: “Free-Free Absorption in Young Radio Galaxies”.

The distant Universe is packed with radio galaxies emitting intense bursts of synchrotron light from supermassive black hole jets. Most of them are young, small and difficult to study.

Sophie Young created a theoretical sample of these radio galaxies that can now be used to help study them in real life. She showed how they will influence their neighbourhood by injecting energy, and momentum into the gas clouds between stars.

Professor Joanne Etheridge (Monash University) has been awarded the Walter Boas Medal for Excellence in Research, recognising her “development of electron scattering methods to determine the structure of condensed matter at the atomic scale and the application of these methods to understand structure-property relationships in functional materials.”

Her research focuses on the development of new methods for determining the structure and electronic structure of materials at the atomic scale using electron microscopy and diffraction. She applies these methods to investigate structure-property relationships in functional materials, including materials for sustainable energy applications.

Professor Jodie Bradby (Australian National University) has been awarded the Women in Leadership Medal, recognising her “leadership at the Australian Institute of Physics including strategic advocacy and community building at the national level and for her long-standing work in gender equity.”

Dr Matthew Berrington (Australian National University) has been awarded the Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics, recognising the most outstanding PhD thesis in physics or its applications by a student from an Australian University, for the thesis titled: “Optical studies of magnetically ordered erbium crystals.”

His work has focused on optically studying various rare earth crystals, to identify a system suitable for microwave-optical conversion, and to study the optical effects typical of these systems. This work could help enable the integration of disparate quantum information technologies, paving the way for distributed quantum computing and a worldwide quantum internet.