ANU Research School of Physics

PhD student Tom Perissinotto travelled to EU thanks to Crompton Award, to see labs and present at international meetings “It opened my eyes to the number of opportunities around the world. There’s so much physics going on!” physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

Making static components dynamic: Liquid crystal + metamaterials. Add circularly polarised laser & the @tmos-arc.bsky.social team rotated liquid crystals & changed component behaviour! Freedom! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social @nottinghamtrentuni.bsky.social

After a massive team effort by our technical staff at HIAF, the superconducting LINAC was re-started to achieve the highest energies in Australia. These experiments focused on the quantum effects driving fission. Stay tuned to our page to learn more about this research and the LINAC.

Congratulations Prof Mahananda Dasgupta & Prof @Lan Fu, elected Fellows of Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering (ATSE) recognising their contributions to nuclear physics & materials science. physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @anff.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Join us for a rare look inside the next generation of optics for detecting colliding black holes. @physicsanu.bsky.social researchers show us the precision engineering needed to measure gravitational waves, opening a new window to the universe 🪐 www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOav...

This Space Week, meet Dr Sandra Saji, a valued member of our Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility team whose work is helping strengthen Australia's space research capabilities. 🔗 Read Sandra's story "Chemist Who Found Her Space": accelerators.org.au/chemist-who-... 🌌 @physicsanu.bsky.social

Congrats to our materials team & @anff.org.au: 3 years in the lab developing & applying the most perfect coatings to 2 beamsplitters for @ligo.org to help detect gravitational waves with greater sensitivity than ever before physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Megavolts 16: testing components from Australia's Lunar Roo-ver at our Space BeamLine! We chat to Jeremy Brown Radiation Effects leader for EPO2 Consortium. Did you know the moon's more dangerous for electronics than free space! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Get stuck into some physics research this summer, under the guidance of our distinguished researchers. And get some pocket money while you're at it! physics.anu.edu.au/study/summer... @scienceanu.bsky.social

We had it all on Day 2 of the SPERA 2026 Conference. 🤝 Networking 🔬 Science 👩‍🔬 Australian science history 🌸 Exploring Canberra Thanks to everyone who contributed to making Day 2 such a great success! More to come… 👀 #SouthPacificEnvironmentalRadioactivityAssociation @physicsanu.bsky.social

"My favourite thing was I spent lots of time at both ends of the theoretical-applied spectrum, dipping my toes in both abstract quantum field theory & experimental work." James Monro, winner @aip.org.au Laby medal best hons thesis Congrats! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social

Entangled photon pairs used for quantum light sources can degrade. By encapsulating them in graphene, a @physicsanu.bsky.social team produced a stable a stable photon-pair source and integrated the material onto an optical fibre, a promising step forward in quantum: pubs.acs.org/nalefd/artic...

Congratulations to Dr Sophie Jie Zhao, 2027 @aip.org.au Women in Physics Medallist, touring her research on quantum technology enabled by correlated light. Dr Zhao is a CI in Centre for Quantum Computing Performance and Integration physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social

Congratulations to Prof Rod Boswell, honoured for his invention of the helicon plasma source and more than five decades of innovation, winning the 2026 University of Michigan Prize for Excellence in Plasma Science & Engineering physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Congratulations to Prof Chennupati Jagadish AC on receiving an AIP Honorary Fellowship, our highest honour. Recognised for his pioneering research, global leadership and outstanding service to physics. www.aip.org.au/News/13660952 @physicsanu.bsky.social @science.org.au

Skilled 3D imaging drastically improves hernia surgery. Philipp Loesel from Materials Physics & Heidelberg University Hospital surgeons imaged hernias for near perfect results for surgery! For ops price tag >$1B, that's big! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

A new way to set up quantum ops/gates sends info thru trapped ions like a Newton's cradle. Zap a laser pulse, watch ions wiggle, hit em again = 2 entangled ions 100x faster than before! Niv work Izzy Savill-Brown & Zain Mehdi physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Why are nanobubbles used to clean America's highest profile pool in Washington? Prof Vince Craig & Noura Alzaidan from Materials Physics explain the fascinating properties of nanobubbles, in @theconversation.com physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

What exactly happens at the surface of a black hole? It's almost impossible to know - unless you unravel signals from black holes colliding! Amazing work with gravitational waves by Neil Lu & Ling Sun @scienceanu.bsky.social CGA & @ozgrav.bsky.social physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au

What are nanobubbles and why would they be used to address an algal bloom? ANU researchers Professor Vincent Craig and Noura Alzaidan from @physicsanu.bsky.social share their expertise with @aunz.theconversation.com theconversation.com/the-lincoln-...

New analysis of cosmic debris from the ocean floor points to a mysterious huge explosion more than 100 million years ago. A great collaboration between ANU, @ansto.bsky.social & HZDR in Germany. physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

A/Prof Rose Ahlefeldt on Decoding the Future Podcast on quantum computing. She breaks down one of the most misunderstood technologies of our time. They also talk real-world applications, like cryptography, drug discovery. open.spotify.com/episode/5PiX... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

The 9th Heavy Ion Accelerator Symposium (HIAS 2025) peer-reviewed conference proceedings are now available on EJP Web of Conferences. A huge effort by the editorial team to bring this together! The articles are available (open access) here: www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epj...

HIA Accelerator Mass Spectrometry team at the @physicsanu.bsky.social provided highly specialised measurements and scientific and technical support to the German researchers examining Antarctic ice cores dated 80,000 years back to trace radioactive iron-60. theconversation.com/stardust-tra...

Stardust in Antarctica reveals Earth flying thru interstellar cloud laced w remnants of ancient star explosion. Dominik Koll used @hia-accelerates.bsky.social to find a needle in 50,000 stadiums of hay! Collab w @helmholtz.de @scienceanu.bsky.social physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au

How to use signals from black hole collisions to measure & correct detectors that observed them. "How cool is that!” says Dr Lilli Sun @ozgrav.bsky.social, & Int'l team, part of @ligo.org & team from@swinburneuni.bsky.social physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

🚀 First round of testing completed at our Space Irradiation Beamline for Zero Error Systems — a Singapore-based global semiconductor designer for the space industry. More testing is planned as part of the project funded by the Australian Government’s Global Science and Technology Diplomacy Fund.

Congrats Liquid Instruments, ANU spin out, securing $70M, to develop new class of AI-driven software, with Keysight & NRFC. Their software consolidates multiple instruments into a single reconfigurable measurement platform physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

Welcoming Chief Scientist Tony Haymet to quantum labs, iiLab & HIAF @hia-accelerates.bsky.social Talks with @jodiebradby.bsky.social & Nanda Dasgupta on training & capacity building, how infrastructure capabilities & expertise build our international connections @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

𝗡𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗦: 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝟮𝟬 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 by supporting commercialisation of Australian quantum breakthroughs #NCRIS20 #Quantum #ResearchInfrastructure @hia-accelerates.bsky.social @nci-australia.bsky.social @pawseycentre.bsky.social

Liquid crystals mixed photosensitive dye = light controlling light: makes static components dynamic & tunable. The @tmos-arc.bsky.social/ANU team is dreaming of hologram videos built from this powerful technology... one day physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

Our photonics experts say the second quantum revolution is coming & needs a new generation of materials to make it happen. They're on it now at Dept of Electronic Materials Engineering & @tmos-arc.bsky.social physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au @unimelb.edu.au

1000+ questions about our last story- quantum entanglement in momentum. So we asked Dr Sean Hodgman to do a deep dive, explaining what they did and how they measured it. Watch here: physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... Thanks for superb production @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

Pleased to be collaborating with top nuclear science facilities through MOU with US Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) & @hia-accelerates.bsky.social. It's a great boost to researchers, students & our industry capabilities physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

Our researchers entangled helium atoms - ‘spooky action at a distance’ with matter, in momentum space for the 1st time It could enable experiments on incompatible , quantum & gravity, steps to Unified Theory of Everything physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

ANU physicists have observed helium atoms entangled in motion. Unlike previous photon experiments, these atoms have mass and feel gravity, opening a new way to test how quantum mechanics and general relativity connect. youtu.be/pp9n5QwVgu4 @physicsanu.bsky.social

Australia's Newton (Prof John, no relation to Isaac) moved here with 30 y international experience, to build ANU Nuclear Physics. His pioneering life is celebrated in a memoir from Academy of Science physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social @hia-accelerates.bsky.social

Radioactive decay leaves unusual trails of destruction in crystals, but now we understand them. Nice work Patrick Kluth using @ansto.bsky.social & @hia-accelerates.bsky.social will help with safer storage of radioactive waste. physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social

AntScan is a sophisticated new database of digital scans & genetic info for ants, says team member Philipp Loesel (Materials Physics). So far 800 ant species done, processing in a week what previously took 6 years. physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au @kit.edu

Emeritus Prof. John Newton was the head of the Department of Nuclear Physics at the ANU in the 70s. A memoir by Katja Curtin et al was recently published in the Historical Records of Australian Science. science.org.au/our-focus/hi... @science.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social @physicsanu.bsky.social

Australia has secured a position at the forefront of the quantum revolution. Find out more about how Australia’s long-term strategic investments through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCIRS) are helping to create a quantum future riconnected.org.au/case-studies...

Research on quantum measurements asks how do you calibrate a quantum ruler? Aritra Das led development of theory that could define limits & help combat noise, improving quantum cryptography & enhancing quantum sensors physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

MegaVolts 15: Forget needles in haystacks, Dr Michaela Froehlich can find 10^-15g radioactive isotope in sea water, coral or antler of a deer! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social @supersubatomic.bsky.social @starstoofondly.bsky.social

Tiny holes in a membrane help study the shapes of proteins in real time. Watch molecules squeeze through, you can tell the shape of a protein in solution! First results achieved with tRNA, but opens up so many possibilities! physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @scienceanu.bsky.social @aip.org.au

Megavolts Ep14: There's a small sliver of outer space here in #Canberra, in @hia-accelerates.bsky.social playing a crucial role in getting Australia's technology off the ground, literally. physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @scienceanu.bsky.social @supersubatomic.bsky.social

MegaVolts 13 Asteroid strikes, ancient glaciers, landslides! UNSW Prof Tim Barrows uses HIAF’s AMS to reveal history of earth: scraped by glaciers, crumbled in landslides & pounded by asteroids physics.anu.edu.au/news_events/... @aip.org.au @hia-accelerates.bsky.social @scienceanu.bsky.social