The University of Sydney School of Physics Annual Report 2007 Contents 1 HEAD OF SCHOOL REPORT 2 STAFF LIST 4 TEACHING REPORT 5 AWARDS & SCHOLARSHIPS 2007 6 OUTREACH REPORT 7 SCIENCE FOUNDATION FOR PHYSICS 8 RESEARCH REPORT 9 ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS (INSTITUTE OF ASTRONOMY) 11 COMPLEX SYSTEMS (BIOPHYSICS, BRAIN DYNAMICS, SPACE PHYSICS) 13 CONDENSED MATTER THEORY As part of the School of Physics plasma research, the Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) group uses a small, spherically symmetric plasma generated by 14 CUDOS electrostatic fields to obtain conditions which will lead to neutron production from nuclear fusion when the gas is deuterium (see p22). 15 HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS 16 INSTITUTE OF NUCLEAR SCIENCE 17 INSTITUTE OF MEDICAL PHYSICS 17 ISA – INTEGRATED SUSTAINABILITY ANALYSIS 18 PLASMA THEORY 20 QUANTUM INFORMATION THEORY 20 SYDNEY UNIVERSITY PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH (SUPER) 20 THEORETICAL PHYSICS 21 RESEARCH GRANTS AWARDED FOR 2008 21 RESEARCH FUNDING 22 PUBLICATIONS 22 BOOKS 22 BOOK CHAPTERS 23 JOURNAL ARTICLES © The School of Physics, The University of Sydney 2007. All rights reserved. 38 CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS Head of School's Report ANNE GREEN PROFESSOR, PHYSICS HEAD OF SCHOOL I FEEL PRIVILEGED TO WRITE THIS REPORT as the first female Head Kickstart to the bush to enable easier access for students from regional of the School of Physics. This is an exciting opportunity for me to led NSW. This year the program was extended to include Dubbo, as well as one of the top physics departments in Australia. My vision is to Wagga Wagga and Armidale, which were already participants. Activities encourage and support our staff and students, who are by far our are also produced for primary school students, for the Talented Student greatest assets. Perhaps the most exciting development in the School Program at the University, and for the general community. of Physics in 2007 was the award of two new ARC Federation ‘Music and the Cosmos’ was a collaborative event between the Fellowships. Professor Joss Bland-Hawthorn joined us from the Anglo- School of Physics and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music held in Australian Observatory to work in astrophotonics, a new field October 2007. Maestro Imré Pallo conducted the Sydney pioneered by him that aims to apply techniques developed in Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra playing Mozart’s Symphony No photonics to astronomical instruments. Professor Ben Eggleton was 41 – Jupiter. Three of our astronomers, Professor Tim Bedding, Dr awarded a second Federation Fellowship to undertake innovative Peter Tuthill and Professor Geraint Lewis – who between them have research in photonics. Speaking of photonics, CUDOS, the Centre of discovered a square star, worked out how to maximise your time in a Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems, an ARC-funded black hole and how to tell the age of stars by their vibrations – Centre of Excellence, of which Ben is the Director, was renewed for delighted the audience with their presentations. For many onlookers it another three years with funding ($7.5M) until 2010. The Centre for was the first time they had attended an astronomy lecture and so it Quantum Computer Technology, in which Professor David McKenzie is was pleasing to hear their enthusiastic comments post-concert. My a Program Manager, was also renewed with a grant of more than thanks also to Physics and Music student Cliff Kerr who brilliantly $10M. In addition, David was awarded an ARC Professorial Fellowship. played his original work, Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes and to Other Fellowship winners include Dr Bruce Yabsley (ARC Australian ABC’s Robyn Williams who graciously agreed to be MC for the night. I Research Fellow) and Dr Michael Ireland (ARC Postdoctoral Research am delighted to report that ‘Music and the Cosmos’ will have a repeat Fellow). The total value for new ARC Grants in 2007 was $4.95M. performance in 2009 as part of The International Year of Astronomy. Recognition for other members of staff continued with the I am very pleased that in an environment of declining science promotion of Dr Carl Cui to Level B, Dr Stephen Bartlett to Level C, enrolments, the School’s student numbers are nonetheless holding Dr Peter Tuthill and Dr Serdar Kuyucak to Level D, while I was up. The Honours cohort for 2007 was a healthy 25, which is very promoted to Level E. It was a particularly good year for Ben Eggleton, important because many of these students continue on to who was awarded the Pawsey Medal for outstanding research in postgraduate research in the School. To improve the learning physics from the Australian Academy of Sciences, and named a “Bright experience of our Junior Physics classes, we introduced an interactive Spark” by Cosmos magazine. Professor Martijn de Sterke was computer-based system for their weekly assignments. The students appointed as the Editor in Chief of Optics Express, one of the leading are pleased with the hints and feedback provided and the teaching optics journals. Professor Elaine Sadler was appointed to the Board of staff welcome the reduced work load; altogether a win-win situation. Astronomy Australia Ltd. As well as accolades for the staff, our One of the main challenges for a fast-growing and successful students are recognized as amongst the best in the country. Dr Alex School like Physics is to maintain high quality facilities. Some of the Argyros received the University Alumni prize for the best PhD thesis, projects completed during 2007 include the refurbishment of the third to follow his award of the Bragg Medal in 2006 for the best Physics floor of the Annexe, previously the Physics Library, into offices for the PhD thesis in the country. Complex Systems research group and the conversion of part of the Outreach to the general community remains a key priority of our basement into a new laboratory for CUDOS. The School also activities. One of the highlights of the year was hosting the 34th reorganized and refurbished the Lecture Demonstration area. Lastly, Professor Harry Messel International Science School (ISS2007) entitled but surely not least, the School has finally succeeded in constructing “ecoscience”, which was an outstanding success. The school, its own bike shed. This means that we have, in addition to the Main organized by the Science Foundation for Physics, selected 140 top Building (A28) and the Annexe (A29), new building number A30. scholars from Australia and around the world. Lecturers included Though these improvements are important, the critical infrastructure Professor Lord Robert Winston, and Dr Fred Watson from the Anglo- issue for the School is that we are desperately short of space. This is Australian Observatory, who serenaded the scholars with the “Redshift partly because our Main Building is a lovely example of heritage Blues” on his guitar during the last lecture. Her Excellency Professor architecture by Leslie Wilkinson, but it is not well-suited to the needs Marie Bashir has been the Patron and strong supporter of the ISS for of a modern world-class research and teaching Physics Department. many years, and we are delighted that she will continue in this role The Annexe is a poor quality building, well past its “use-by date”. The despite her many commitments as Governor of NSW and now Senior Management of the University have recognized our needs and Chancellor of the University of Sydney. During 2007, the Science have included a new and substantially larger building to replace the Foundation’s Executive Officer Dr Chris Stewart left the position to Annexe in the ambitious Campus 2020 Plan. Details are not yet clear, pursue other opportunities; I am very pleased to report that Adam but the preparation of a business case and the initiation of the New Selinger has been appointed to the role. Building project are among my highest priorities for 2008. We continued to run major outreach projects specifically aimed at Finally, I would like to thank the previous Head A/Prof. Brian James for NSW high school students. They include Kickstart, which invites his wise leadership and management of the School for the period 2003– students to the School where they engage in interesting experiments 2006. During this period many initiatives came to fruition, so the School from the high school syllabus. Some years ago it was decided to take is now in a very strong position to look to the future with confidence. SCHOOL OF PHYSICS ANNUAL REPORT 2007 1 Staff ARC Federation Fellows Robert Wilkins, BE MEngSc PhD Shamibrata Chatterjee, BTech IIT Madras Marcela M Bilek, BSc PhD Camb MBA MSc PhD Cornell Roch Senior Lecturers Christopher Dey, PhD Joss Bland-Hawthorn, BSc AU Birm PhD Peter Barnes BSc PhD Libin Fu, BS Wuhan MS PhD Peking Sus & RGO Seyed Reza Hashemi-Nezhad, MSc PhD until August Benjamin J Eggleton, BSc PhD Birm Rodrigo Gil-Merino, BSc Laguna PhD Bryan Gaensler, BSc PhD Joseph Khachan, BSc PhD NSW Potsdam until March Peter A Robinson, BSc PhD Serdar Kuyucak, BSc METU PhD Yale Christian E Grillet, ARC PD Fellow Catherine Stampfl, BSc PhD LaTrobe David J Moss, BSc Waterloo MSc PhD Lisa Harvey-Smith from October Toronto Helen M Johnston, PhD CalifIT BSc Australian Professorial Fellows Nigel Marks, BSc PhD Jong Won Kim, BS MS Soel PhD Iver H Cairns, BSc PhD John W O'Byrne, BSc PhD Maryland Ross C McPhedran, BSc PhD Tas J Gordon Robertson, BSc Adel PhD Laszlo Kiss, DPhys PhD Attila Elaine M Sadler, BSc Qld PhD ANU Manjula D Sharma, MSc DAPh SPac Christian Karnutsch from October Sergei Vladimirov, MSc PhD Mosc Kevin E Varvell,