Physicists from 50 countries last month called for physics leaders to take action against extreme gender inequality. They met online in July at the Seventh Conference on Women in Physics, organised by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physicists (IUPAP).

The AIP hosted the conference, which was originally scheduled to be held in Melbourne in 2020.

Delegates heard about the global state of play. For example:

·         over 99 per cent of physics students at Burkina Faso’s largest university are male

·         no women have graduated in physical sciences at The University of El Salvador between 2017 and 2020

·         in Chile, the percentage of women working full time in universities and research centres has stayed around 14 per cent for years

·         only four per cent of Irish girls study physics in their final years

·         and, in Australia, it will take until 2060 for women to comprise just 33 per cent of the astronomy workforce.

The conference made 21 recommendations to IUPAP and the wider physics community. Highlights include:

·         Improving IUPAP conferences through anonymised applications and other initiatives

·         Mentoring and training opportunities for women physics entrepreneurs and leaders

·         No IUPAP awards for researchers involved in harassment or misconduct

·         Increased access and support for women and girls in developing countries.

Several physicists received hefty honours during June, both here and overseas.

Several eminent scientists from the Australian National University were included in the Queen’s Birthday Honours, including Kurt Lambeck (pictured), James (Jim) Williams, Lawrence Cram and Neil Manson.

In the 2021 Australian Space Awards, astrophysicist Dr Sascha Schediwy from The University of Western Australia and International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) took out both Academic of the Year and the overall Excellence award.

And Eric Huang from the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics secured a Fulbright Future Scholarship, with which he will pursue a PhD in physics at the University of Maryland.

In a first for the AIP since the introduction of national AIP medals, we are celebrating the fact that all four of the biennial medals have been awarded to women. These awards include the Harrie Massey Medal (awarded in conjunction with the Institute of Physics), the Alan Walsh Medal, the Education Medal and the Ruby Payne-Scott Award. In these awards, we are recognising very talented physicists and congratulate these winners on their achievements and success!

Since the awarding of the first AIP medal, the Walter Boas medal (1984), the overwhelming majority of medals have been awarded to men. Indeed, before 2008, only the Bragg Gold Medal had ever been awarded to a woman. The AIP has been working to encourage nominations from across gender and background, and we encourage you to consider those among your colleagues and peers who might be eligible for these awards in the future.

We also acknowledge all nominees submitted to these awards, as the selection panels have noted it can be very difficult to choose the winner each year. To provide some information about the selection process for the awards, we can advise that nominations of both men and women were received, thanks to our now established focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion in the process and the effort of the nominators. For each award there was a separate, independent selection panel (and for some awards a two-stage selection process with different panels), where each selection panel comprised volunteers with a mix of gender and backgrounds.

The annual awards (Walter Boas medal, Bragg Gold Medal, TH Laby medal and Outstanding Service to Physics Award) will be announced later in the year and we look forward to discovering who amongst the nominees will be successful.

The AIP Theoretical Physics Group recently hosted a talk by MIT’s Professor Tracy Slatyer on possible signals of novel dark matter physics. If you missed it, you can catch it here.

The AIP has teamed up with the Astronomical Society of Australia to form the Group for Astroparticle Physics (GAP). The group provides a new forum for scientists working in astronomy and particle physics to discuss the many areas of overlap between the two.

In coming weeks, we’ll issue a shout-out for members interested in joining the inaugural committee.

For more information, email Gavin Rowell via aip@aip.org.au

A workshop on writing grant applications and papers will be held at the Australian National University in Canberra across three days starting on Monday, September 20.

The program is designed for female early career researchers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine. More details and registration here.

The Diversity and Equity Group in Australian Physics (DEGAP) is on the hunt for a new Chair, following the departure of the former office holder, Victoria Coleman.

If you are interested in the role of Chair of DEGAP please reach out to Victoria herself, Sven Rogge, Nicole Bell or Jodie Bradby. The AIP views this as an important leadership position.

Information on DEGAP can be found here.

The AIP are delighted to announce the outcomes for the 

following 2020 awards:

HARRIE MASSEY MEDAL

Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop

The University of Queensland

For her pioneering work in laser micromanipulation, atom and quantum optics, ultracold atomic gases, nano-optics and biophotonics. Her seminal research in the mechanical action of light in biological and micron scale systems has paved the way for optically driven micromachines and led to applications in a diverse range of fields. Her distinguished achievements in laser cooling and trapping of atoms includes milestones such as the experimental demonstration of dynamical tunnelling and the observation of novel coherent structures in condensed gases.

ALAN WALSH MEDAL

Professor Ann Roberts

The University of Melbourne

Professor Roberts has provided an outstanding contribution to the fields of Plasmonics, Nanophotonics, and Optics more broadly. Her deep understanding of fundamental optics has enabled new advances in art conservation and attribution, particularly in collaboration with the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, and to the development of new generation banknote security features in collaboration with the Reserve Bank of Australia.

EDUCATION MEDAL

Associate Professor Elizabeth Angstmann

The University of New South Wales

For her outstanding contribution to physics education in Australia by developing innovative approaches to first year and service teaching, increasing the number of students voluntarily electing to study physics, and establishing programs to improve the experience of secondary school physics students in New South Wales.

RUBY PAYNE-SCOTT

Dr Magdalena Zych

The University of Queensland

For her development of an innovative new framework that incorporates relativistic time dilation into the theory of quantum mechanics, and discovery that time dilation leads to a novel form of quantum entanglement and decoherence; and the subsequent proposal of the new paradigm of ‘quantum clock interferometry’.

We congratulate these award winners on their achievements!

Due to a confluence of events including COVID-19 we are still finalizing the award winners for 2019. The decision was made to go ahead with the announcement of these 2020 awards so as not to further compound these delays.