On 16 and 17 August, the AIP Tasmanian Branch organised a series of outreach talks at St Helens District High in rural Tasmania. The talks were given by Jason Dicker and Georgia Stewart and received a very positive feedback from teachers.

Georgia, a PhD candidate in astrophysics at the University of Tasmania, discussed our solar system with the primary school students. This included asteroids and some of the exotic members of the outer regions; naturally the children wanted to know why Pluto was demoted!

Jason is a year 12 physics teacher with over 35 years’ experience, and worked with the senior students. As part of a session on thunderstorms, years 6–8 were entertained by electrostatics with a Van de Graaff Generator and Wimshurst Machine. Bags of lollies were given to volunteers as compensation.

Students in years 9–11 discussed the present knowledge of the wider Universe, including active galactic nuclei and the 2019 picture of the M87 Black Hole.

A lecture was presented for the general public on the Monday night.

zOOM into Physics

The August session on Dark Matter/Energy was a vibrant conversation and at the conclusion it was felt that there was still a lot to discuss.

The great news is that our special guests Ray Volkas and Tamara Davis have agreed to return to continue the topic!!!

Our universe is dominated by the dark-side, the dark matter and dark energy which have shaped the evolution of the cosmos. But just what is happening in the dark? And how can we be confident what is happening in the dark and that we are not just jumping at shadows?

This month we will tackle one of the biggest mysteries facing physics, the nature of the dark-side! Around the globe hordes of astronomers and particle physicists are devising new observations, experiments and theories to try and shine a light on dark matter and dark energy. But just what do we expect them to find?

29 September, 8.00 – 9.30 pm.

For more details and the all-important Zoom link: https://aip.org.au/ZiP.

Professor Eric May (University of Western Australia and AIP member) has been named Scientist of the Year at the 2021 WA Premier's Science Awards ceremony.

Professor May is an internationally-recognised leader in the areas of fluid science, thermodynamics and natural gas engineering.

His development and use of measurement technology has produced explanations for long-standing scientific mysteries, revealed unexpected physical phenomena and helped improve industrial processes.

Premier's Science Awards were also presented to:

• Associate Professor Edward Litton (University of Western Australia and Fiona Stanley Hospital) and Dr Arman Siahvashi (University of Western Australia) - joint winners of the Woodside Early Career Scientist of the Year
• Liam Scarlett (Curtin University) and Niamh Troy (University of Western Australia and Telethon Kids Institute) - ExxonMobil Student Scientist of the Year
• Daniel Curran (Curtin University) - Shell Aboriginal STEM Student of the Year
• FIRST LEGO League WA (Curtin University) - Chevron Science Engagement Initiative of the Year. 

Professor Richard Hobbs (University of Western Australia) became the 16th person to be inducted into the WA Science Hall of Fame.

For more information about the Premier's Science Awards, including the winners and finalists, visit http://www.jtsi.wa.gov.au/ScienceAwards

The AIP is calling for Australian-based female physicists to apply for the 2022 AIP Women in Physics Lecture Tour. Applications are open now and close on 17 September 2021.

The AIP Women in Physics Lecture Tour is a celebration of women’s contribution to the advancement of physics, and is presented every alternate year by an internationally-based physicist.

2022 was scheduled to host an international physicist, but COVID-19 makes this impractical.

For this reason, the AIP is re-opening applications to Australian women physicists.

The AIP greatly appreciates the applications it has received and will contact applicants to determine if they wish to be considered for future opportunities. This is an excellent opportunity for an EMCR physicist to expand their domestic networks and inspire the next generation of physicists around the country.

The 2021 AIP Women in Physics Lecturer, Associate Professor Susanna Guatelli, is wrapping up her lecture series in Western Australia this month.

She has criss-crossed the country talking about her work, which includes how to keep astronauts safe from radiation during the long haul to Mars.

The last talks are:

Women in Physics morning tea (for academics and students)

2 September 10:30 – 11:30 am AWST

University of Western Australia

Registration: https://bit.ly/3x1ezHF

Women in Physics afternoon tea (for academics and students)

2 September 3:30 – 4:30 pm AWST

Curtin University

Registration: https://bit.ly/3x1ezHF

It is with great regret that we are informing you that colleague and friend Ian Bassett passed away on 26 August after a short illness.

Ian’s career in optics was very varied: he joined the theoretical physics department at the University of Sydney in the 1960s, he was one of the founders of the Optical Fibre Technology Centre, he led fibre sensor R&D in the Australian Photonics CRC working with ABB, and later played a key role in the start-up Smart Digital Optics (SDO) which was acquired by an international company.

The last decades of his career were largely devoted to developing a fibre optic current sensor for use in the electricity industry. It started as a PhD project and was ultimately the key product of SDO. For this work he was awarded the AIP’s inaugural Alan Walsh Medal for Service to Industry.

Ian was a gentleman and an outstanding colleague and mentor to many junior colleagues, including us.

Simon Fleming, Martijn de Sterke.

(Dr Ian Bassett was AIP Secretary from 1985-1989)

The AIP is very excited to announce the following awards:

WALTER BOAS MEDAL

2019 Walter Boas Medal

Professor Andrea Morello

UNSW Sydney

For Professor Morello’s world-first demonstration of quantum information processing with single spins in silicon, and for developing the fundamental components of a silicon-based quantum computer.

2020 Walter Boas Medal

Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn

University of Sydney

Professor Bland-Hawthorn laid the foundations for modern Galactic archaeology, near-field cosmology and astrophotonics, a field that lies at the interface of photonics and astronomical instrumentation.

BRAGG GOLD MEDAL

2019 Bragg Gold Medal

Dr Samuel Gorman

University of New South Wales

For Dr Gorman’s thesis entitled: "Charge and spin dynamics in multi-donor systems"

2020 Bragg Gold Medal

Dr Alexander Bray

Australian National University

For Dr Bray’s thesis entitled: “Strong field sub-femtosecond electronic processes”

TH LABY MEDAL

2018 TH Laby Medal

Felicity Lee

Australian National University

For her thesis entitled: “Pulsed Hydrogen Plasmas: Modelling and Experiment”.

And

Albert Zhou

University of Sydney

For his thesis entitled: “The Cosmological Electroweak Phase Transition in a Scale-Invariant Standard Model”.

2019 TH Laby Medal

Simon White

University of Technology Sydney

For his thesis entitled: “Efficient Tomography of Quantum Dots in Photonic Chips”

2020 TH Laby Medal

Matthew Goh

Australian National University

For his thesis entitled: “Feedback Control of atomic Fermi Gases”

We congratulate these award winners on their achievements.  

Fifteen DECRA applications and 17 Future Fellowship applications were ruled ineligible in this round because they cited preprints such as arXiv papers.

“If you rip [money] out of physics, that’s bad to begin with. But doing it at the point where we have early career researchers establishing themselves is the worst thing you can do. That’s what we live on, bringing good new people into the system,” said Sven Rogge in an article by The Times Higher Education:
Toll of ARC’s preprints rule revealed. Fears for physics pipeline, as 32 researchers relinquish up to $22m for citing preprints.

On behalf of the Australian physics, astronomy, chemistry and mathematics communities, the AIP, ASA, RACI and AustMS coordinated a letter to the Australian Research Council to protest the ruling.

It’s also been picked up by various media outlets including The Guardian.

A letter to the Australian Research Council regarding the eligibility of grant proposals that reference preprints has been coordinated by the AIP, ASA, RACI and AustMS, on behalf on the Australian Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry and Mathematics communities.  It is available here:  http://aip.org.au/Advocacy.  The letter has been co-signed by leaders in these disciplines at universities across Australia. Thank you to everyone who contributed. Thanks also to those who reached out to the AIP to let us know their stories.

We are aware that a significant number of DECRA and Future Fellowship applications were ruled ineligible in this round because they cited preprints such as arXiv papers. We consider this to be completely at odds with the way modern science operates, especially in the field of Physics where arXiv papers are used routinely. The AIP is currently working on a more formal response on this issue, in coordination with other stakeholders. Please reach out to the AIP (aip@aip.org.au) urgently if you have any input on this topic.