The Australasian Radiation Protection Society (ARPS) is hosting a Students Meet Industry event on the 17th of August at QUT.

If you are interested to come along and hear about possible career paths please use the information below to register.

We are pleased to confirm that A/Prof Katarina Miljkovic has rescheduled her previously postponed Women in Physics Tour and will be briefly visiting QLD for two seminars on 29 and 30 September! The seminars will be held at QUT and UQ and will be open to the public. All details below and in the following registration links.

QUT, 29 Sep, 4:30pm: eventbrite.com.au/e/391447107837

UQ, 30 Sep, 11:00am: eventbrite.com.au/e/392065758237

JULY DATES POSTPONED DUE TO ILLNESS

This year’s Women in Physics Lecturer, A/Prof Katarina Miljkovic will be traveling around the country, delivering a series of free talks entitled: "Impacts! Rocks from space colliding with planets".

In addition to visiting several schools in Cairns and Brisbane, Katarina will be holding an academic lecture at QUT Gardens Point campus on at 11AM on 20th July. The event is free and open to the public. Full details available at the following EventBrite registration site: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/336250362887

Further events may be announced here in coming weeks and all enquiries can be directed to Joel Alroe, at: aip_branchchair_qld@aip.org.au

The AIP-QLD is looking for nominations of Physics teachers that have made a positive impact to Physics education at the high school level through one or more of the following criteria.

• Promote student interest in physics by providing an environment that stimulates student curiosity and learning.
• Use, develop or write innovative instructional materials and new technologies and approaches to the teaching of physics.
• Be a positive role model or mentor for other teachers of physics.
• Participate in professional development activities in science as a facilitator and continuous development as an effective science educator, with a focus on physics.

If you have a colleague, a former teacher of your own, or have heard of an inspiring teacher in your circle of friends, please consider nominating them for this years award by filling out the nomination form (available here) and sending this nomination (or any inquiries) by email to: aip_branchchair_qld@aip.org.au

The award consists of a cash prize, plaque and certificate.

Nominations close Friday 5 August 2022.

Date: Thursday 4 November 2021 Time: 2-3pm (AEST) Link: https://uqz.zoom.us/j/81609230057

You're invited to join us the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics colloquium on Thursday 4 November 2-3pm presented by Emeritus Professor Ross McKenzie and Dr Henry Nourse.

This event is designed to be accessible to a general audience, so you won't need to be a subject matter expert to follow along and it will also be live-streamed via Zoom.

Complex systems are everywhere. The economy, brains, biology, climate, and the materials that surround us are all composed of many small interacting parts. The whole system often displays emergent phenomena that are surprising and hard to predict solely from a knowledge of the parts and their interactions.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 was awarded "for groundbreaking contributions to our understanding of complex systems". Half of the prize was awarded to Giorgio Parisi "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales." His theoretical work provided profound insights into a strange state of matter: the spin glass that can exist in metals containing a random array of magnetic atom impurities. The techniques and concepts developed by Parisi for this specific complex system have been used to understand complex systems studied in mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, and biology.

The second half of the prize was jointly awarded to Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming". Manabe was the first to study a model that included the main relevant physical processes that reliably predict global warming from the greenhouse effect. Hasselmann’s work was "the first serious effort to provide a sound statistical framework for identifying a human-caused warming signal." In this colloquium we will describe the background needed to appreciate the significance of the contributions to science by this year’s Nobel Laureates in Physics.

The Queensland Branch is holding its Annual General Meeting on Monday 18 October, both in-person and online. You can register your attendance here: https://forms.gle/fR5wpMToB21Uzowv8

The in-person meeting will be catered and held at: 

Owen J Wordsworth Room
S Block, Level 12
QUT Gardens Point Campus, Brisbane

Monday 18 October 2021 from 4pm

The Zoom meeting link has been emailed to branch members. If you require the meeting ID and password, please contact our branch secretary or chair.

The AIP QLD branch would like to congratulate Graeme George, from Villanova College, who was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Prize for 2021. Graeme was awarded the 2021 prize, due to the range and depth of work he has displayed across all the criteria for the award. These criteria include:

• promoting student interest in physics by providing an environment that stimulates student curiosity and learning,
• using, developing or writing innovative instructional materials and new technologies and approaches to the teaching of Physics,
• be a positive role model or mentor for other teachers of physics
• participate in professional development activities in science as a facilitator and continued development as an effective science educator, with a focus on physics.

Graeme George with his AIP QLD Excellence in Physics Teaching Prize for 2021

Congratulations Graeme!

Do you know a deserving Physics teacher in Queensland you would like to nominate for this award? The next call for nominations will be announced here, in early 2022.

The Queensland Branch is preparing for their annual general meeting and we are calling for applications form interested members that would like to join the committee for the 2022 calendar year. 

The committee is looking to diversify the professional base of its members, and is therefore especially encouraging applications from members not employed in the academic sector. Industry, secondary school educators, student members (PhD or undergraduates) or members working in the government sector are especially encourage to apply. 

To apply, please send a short! (2 page max) CV and a short motivational statement to the secretary (aip_branchsecretary_qld@aip.org.au) or chair (aip_branchchair_qld@aip.org.au), by no later than the 28th of September 16:00h AEST. 

John Mainstone Youth Lecture Tour

Jacinda Ginges from the University of Queensland is making her way to Mt Isa, Weipa and Cairns for a series of school talks as part of the John Mainstone Youth Lecture Tour. 

She will talk about how precision atomic physics is leading the search for new particles that extend our understanding of the universe. They may lead to explanations for mysterious dark matter and deliver new physics.

Jacinda will present at:

• Cairns State High School, Wednesday 6 October 12pm
• Western Cape College Weipa, Thursday 7 October 1.45pm
• Spinifex CollegeMt Isa, Wednesday 13 October 11.30am.

Martin Stringer (Sustainable Mineral Institute, University of Queensland) presented to All Hallows in Brisbane. He has since stood aside to spend time with his family.

The John Mainstone Youth Lecture Tour takes  a young and inspiring academic to tour the states far and wide!  They will present their work to Queensland HighSchool students and engage them about what a career in science is all about, and how it all started!  This tour is returning in 2021 after having to take the year off in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.

This years Lecturer is Dr. Martin Stringer from the Sustainable Mineral Institute at the University of Queensland talking about his research on sustainability and energy usage. (More details below!)

If you would be interested in hosting Martin at your High School, please contact the branch chair Till Weinhold via  aip_branchchair_qld@aip.org.au

Martin is available between the 9th of August and 20th of August to deliver his lecture. If a time slot outside of this window is required, please contact Till Weinhold to see if your request can be accommodated.

Converting hydrogen to humans

This year’s John Mainstone Youth Lecture is about the physics of our planet’s sustainability. It took over 10 billion years for the universe to create the resources that we, the Earth and the Sun are made of. But is it enough to power 10 billion people? For ever?  To answer this question, we start at the very beginning, at the formation of the Universe, and end up right here and now in Queensland, to try to understand how our life here compares with the resources that our planet has left, and how our future could be powered.

Martin is a theoretical physicist whose research career originally focussed on cosmology and galaxy evolution, until his mounting concern for our own planet bought him back down to Earth to work on terrestrial problems. Since then, he has been applying the various mathematical modelling techniques developed over a ten-year career studying the formation of galaxies to a variety of other systems, from models of island reforestation and interacting wildlife populations, to future systems of power generation, resource supply chains, and energy markets.