Past Colloquia
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16 Oct 2018: Tools of Light: The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics:
Categories: Lasers, Nobel Prize, Optics, Photonics.
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09 Oct 2018: Quantum Design of Majorana Fermions:
Categories: Quantum Computing, Superconductors.
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17 Sep 2018: My transition from CSIRO post-doc to Chief Technology Officer in industry:
Categories: Astrophysics, Industry.
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03 Sep 2018: Optical trapping in zebrafish for Neuroscience:
Categories: Biology, Imaging, Optics.
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21 Aug 2018: The Eye as a Target for Photonic Technology:
Categories: Biology, Medicine, Optics, Photonics.
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13 Aug 2018: Photo-physics of organic semiconductors: from solar cells to explosives detectors:
The speaker will describe some of the main spectroscopic techniques used to probe the photo-physical properties of organic semiconductors and how they can be applied to study specific processes.
Categories: Chemistry, Electronics, Photonics.
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06 Aug 2018: Photonics and the Primary Industries: Lasers, Milk, Sperm and Mussels:
The speaker will discuss how advanced photonics across this spectrum underpins our primary industries facing projects.
Categories: Biology, Industry, Photonics.
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24 Jul 2018: Optical spatial mode manipulation:
“In this talk, research will be presented on measuring and manipulating light’s spatial properties”.
Categories: Engineering, Imaging, Lasers, Optics, Photonics.
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08 May 2018: Motor Proteins, Microtubules and the Generation of Structure in Biology:
“Using high-resolution, single-molecule and mechanical techniques, together with theory, we are trying to understand the interaction rules that allow molecules to work together to form highly organized, yet dynamic cellular structures.”
Categories: Biology, Chemistry.
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02 May 2018: MODELLING THE HUMAN BRAIN, WHILE IT MODELS THE SENSORY ENVIRONMENT:
“In this talk I will show the advantage of combining electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) with machine learning.”
Categories: Biology, Medicine, Neuroscience, Women in Physics.
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24 Apr 2018: Mental Health and Well Being for Scientists:
“Time to talk about why so many postgrads have poor mental health.”
Categories: Education, Medicine, Society.
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17 Apr 2018: Seeing Dark Matter through a Gravitational Lens:
“I will describe some of the history of dark matter and gravitational lensing, and show some recent applications.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, Space.
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27 Feb 2018: From Yrast states to funding States:
“The talk will explain what nuclear yrast states are and why they might be important.”
Categories: Atomic and Nuclear physics, Nanotechnology, Particle Physics, Society.
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21 Feb 2018: The case for why the Mass and Proper Time should be dynamical variables, and some consequences that follow:
“The mass in both classical physics and quantum theory…plays an active dynamical role.”
Categories: General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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07 Dec 2017: Interferometry in a strong light:
“In this talk I will discuss an experiment in which we used a particularly compliant micro-scale drum to observe backaction in an interferometer, and demonstrate how quantum correlations can improve measurement in the presence of backaction”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Nanotechnology, Optics, Photonics, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics, Women in Physics.
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29 Nov 2017: Blurring the classical-quantum divide:
“In this talk I will outline how structured light beams can be created and how they can be used to blur the classical-quantum divide”
Categories: Optics, Photonics, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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11 Oct 2017: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2017: LIGO and gravitational waves:
“Come hear from UQ’s Warwick Bowen and Tamara Davis about the details of the Nobel 2017 winning science — how the measurement challenges were overcome, and what gravitational waves can teach us about black holes and fundamental physics.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, General Relativity, Nobel Prize, Quantum Gravity, Time.
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09 Oct 2017: Using qubits as a tool in materials science: unravelling the mystery of two-level defects in amorphous solids:
“At present the microscopic origin of the defects in superconducting circuits remains a mystery, but recent experimental and theoretical results are bringing us closer to an answer.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Nanotechnology, Quantum Mechanics, Superconductors.
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15 Aug 2017: Imaging the Surface States of a Strongly Correlated Topological Insulator:
“I will give a general introduction to topological materials, and show the first direct proof of a strongly correlated topological insulator.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Nanotechnology, Superconductors.
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24 Jul 2017: Dark Matter, First Light:
“I will give an update on the quest to identify dark matter both in the lab and in the sky, major unsolved problems in dark matter theory, and how upcoming observations of the epoch of the first cosmic structures can be used to open a new window on the dark universe.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Particle Physics, Space, Women in Physics, Women in Science.
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18 Jul 2017: Fundamental Tests with Antihydrogen Atoms:
“Motivated by the baryogenesis problem (the scarcity of antimatter in the University), CERN’s ALPHA collaboration has been studying the properties of antihydrogen atoms. This talk will describe how we trap antihydrogen, and discuss our physics results.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Quantum Mechanics.
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30 May 2017: What Does Quantum Mechanics Have To Do With The Chemical Industry? Reflections On A Journey From Pure To Applied Research.:
“This talk will discuss some of the joys, trials and challenges of adapting from a background in pure science to a career of applied research…”
Categories: Chemistry, Engineering, Industry.
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09 May 2017: Impurities in degenerate quantum matter:
“I will discuss recent theoretical and experimental progress in exploring the properties of impurities interacting with bosonic and fermionic mediums.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Ultracold atoms.
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02 May 2017: Re-engineering the band gap of silicon and diamond with implanted ions:
‘We focus on the development of a technique that employs shallow deterministic ion implantation, within 20 nm of the surface, which is compatible with the process flow for the fabrication of single atom semiconductor devices with the standard tools of the industry’
Categories: Engineering, Nanotechnology, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, Quantum Mechanics.
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24 Apr 2017: From breast cancer genes to academic leadership:
“My research has focused on the function of non-coding regions of the human genome and how variations in these regions can contribute to breast cancer risk”
Categories: Biology, Medicine.
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04 Apr 2017: Squeezed light and gravitational wave detectors:
“The injection of squeezed states of light will further enhance the detectors’ astrophysical reach by improving sensitivity beyond shot noise. In this talk, I will summarize the research efforts towards a squeezed light source for advanced LIGO.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, General Relativity, Space, Time.
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28 Mar 2017: Mathematics and Indigenous people:
“This presentation will explore the connection between mathematics and culture and how this can transform mathematics education for Indigenous students”
Categories: Education, Science communication, Society.
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27 Feb 2017: Tensor Networks:
“Tensor Networks provide a framework for representing many-body states in an extremely compact representation. A tensor network can be seen as a form of information compression, and more recently this has led to potential applications in machine learning”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information.
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31 Oct 2016: The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 – What is strange about strange forms of matter?:
“This colloquium will introduce the basic concepts behind this year’s Nobel Prize, and explain why it is important for current research. It aims to be accessible for undergraduate physics students.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Nobel Prize, Superfluids.
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24 Oct 2016: Experimental metaphysics and the nature of reality:
“In this talk I will give an overview of some of the foundational questions which are central to our understanding of quantum mechanics. These include the infamous measurement problem, as well as the role of reality, causality and uncertainty in quantum mechanics.”
Categories: Optics, Photonics, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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19 Sep 2016: Could There be Life Elsewhere in the Solar System or Galaxy?:
“In this talk I will review recent research into the origin of life on Earth, which will help us to understand whether it is likely that there could be life elsewhere in our solar system, and in the galaxy.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Biology, Space.
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05 Sep 2016: MOGLabs and research commercialisation: an Australian academic perspective:
I will present a very limited perspective on translating lab research to the marketplace, reflecting on the trials and tribulations but also on the rewards, and on what might be done to foster more translation within the Australian context.
Categories: Education, Industry, Uncategorized.
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22 Aug 2016: Quantum Trajectories, Decoherence, and What One MIGHT Read from the Environment:
“Recent experiments with superconducting qubits have dramatically changed the landscape for addressing elementary quantum systems.”
Categories: Quantum Mechanics.
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12 Aug 2016: Disorder and topology in modern condensed matter physics:
“[Topology] took off in the last decade and became a vibrant and intellectually stimulating subject within condensed matter physics.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Electronics.
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11 Aug 2016: Quest for the theory beyond actual Quantum Mechanics: an investigation of the collapse models:
Categories: Quantum Mechanics, Women in Physics.
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07 Jun 2016: From inorganic to organic semiconductors and the emergence of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskites:
“We have been living in the so-called silicon-age for nearly 50 years. [...] In the last two decades, a newer class of semiconductors has emerged.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Electronics, Photonics.
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30 May 2016: Brain Waves:
“What might the equations for the brain look like [...]?”
Categories: Biology, Mathematics.
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23 May 2016: Honours seminars, Sem. 1 2016:
“This week we have 3 honours students giving their final seminars.”
Categories: Lasers, Quantum Optics, Ultracold atoms.
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17 May 2016: Towards accurate, label–free molecular sensing: a materials science perspective:
“Microbeam mechanical resonators have attracted considerable attention for molecular recognition applications.”
Categories: Chemistry, Engineering, Nanotechnology.
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09 May 2016: Full and efficient characterisation of non-Markovian quantum processes:
“[...] when a quantum system repeatedly interact with an environment, the environment often ‘remembers’ information about the system’s past. “
Categories: Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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03 May 2016: Atomic-Scale Engineering of Solid Interfaces: Towards Enhanced Electronic and Optoelectronic Functionalities:
“Controlling [...] atomic-scale structural properties is hence essential for the design of solid interfaces with optimal electronic and optoelectronic response”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Electronics, Engineering, Nanotechnology, Photonics.
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26 Apr 2016: A Glimpse at the Rosetta Stone of Mathematics:
“This talk will be a tour through some of the basic concepts that appear in the Rosetta Stone of Mathematics and will provide a brief history of its triumph.”
Categories: Mathematics.
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20 Apr 2016: Which exoEarths should we search for life?:
“The observations required to search for the evidence of life will be extremely challenging, and so it is important to ensure that we choose the best and most promising targets to facilitate that work.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Biology, Space.
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30 Mar 2016: Quantum physics and gravity: the odd couple:
“Due to advances in technology it has now become possible to conduct quantum experiments in which gravitational interactions between the constituents cannot be ignored.”
Categories: General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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14 Mar 2016: The Observation of Gravitational Waves:
“Rarely has a physics discovery been more eagerly anticipated than the detection of gravitational waves.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, General Relativity, Lasers, Optics, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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07 Mar 2016: The Science-Journalism Duality: Behind the Scenes at Scientific American:
“One of the thorniest issues that science journalists face is how to make sense of scientific disagreements and avoid pitfalls such as false balance.”
Categories: Education, Science communication.
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29 Feb 2016: Dark Matter in the Cosmos – The Hunt to find it in the Laboratory:
“In this talk we will focus on the direct detection of the dark matter constituents, the so called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs), in underground labs.”
Categories: Cosmology, General Relativity.
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11 Nov 2015: Dark matter emission – seeing the invisible:
“Dark matter dominates the matter content of the universe…”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology.
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26 Oct 2015: The metabolism of ancient Greek in modern physics:
“Over 90% of the special vocabulary of science in English is constituted by ancient Greek and Latin lexical roots…”
Categories: History, Languages and Linguistics.
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19 Oct 2015: Nobel Prize in Physics 2015 – What’s the difference between icecream and neutrinos?:
“[T]he Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for research into the elusive properties of neutrinos.”
Categories: Nobel Prize, Particle Physics.
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13 Oct 2015: Looking up from the diamond-cubic structures of Si and Ge:
“Currently there are over 12 different pressure-induced phases of silicon, several of which are stable at ambient conditions.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Electronics, Engineering, Women in Physics.
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07 Oct 2015: Bio-inspired computation:
“This talk will introduce ideas about computation in biological systems across multiple scales in time and space.”
Categories: Computer Science.
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14 Sep 2015: Joint Mathematics/Physics Colloquium: Multi-scale mechanics of soft materials, complex fluids and plant cell walls, and its application to food structure design:
“Here I highlight our recent advances[...] that enable in vitro measurement of relevant material properties of food systems, which span liquids, multiphase fluids and brittle solids.”
Categories: Biology, Chemistry, Condensed Matter, Engineering, Fluids, Food Science, Industry.
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31 Aug 2015: Unconscious bias and outdated stereotypes: how thinking shortcuts lead to bad outcomes:
“This high attrition represents a loss of talent and diversity, a waste of investment, and ultimately limits our productivity and innovation.”
Categories: Society, Women in Science.
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24 Aug 2015: The Reality of the Quantum Wavefunction:
“The quantum wavefunction is at the heart of our best description of nature, yet we don’t know what this object actually represents.”
Categories: Quantum Mechanics.
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17 Aug 2015: Violation of the Spin Statistics Theorem and the Bose-Einstein Condensation of Particles with Half-Integer Spin:
“Violation of the Spin Statistics Theorem and the Bose-Einstein Condensation of Particles with Half-Integer Spin”
Categories: Condensed Matter.
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11 Aug 2015: Active galactic nuclei as powerful cosmic probes and the role of OzDES:
” [Active galactic nuclei] can be observed to much earlier epochs of the expansion history of the Universe than the currently used probes.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology, Space.
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03 Aug 2015: Topological Kondo Insulators:
“[T]opological Kondo insulators [...] appear as a result of interplay between strong correlations and spin-orbit interactions.”
Categories: Condensed Matter.
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28 Jul 2015: Gravitational time dilation in quantum mechanics:
“Clocks in superpositions of proper times and universal decoherence.”
Categories: General Relativity, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Mechanics, Space, Time.
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21 Jul 2015: Type Ia Supernovae: Enlightening Cosmic Explosions:
“I will summarise the work that has led to the current best understanding for the origin of SNe Ia, then discuss the outstanding questions about SN Ia progenitors and how we might address them in future work.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology.
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01 Jun 2015: The Progress of Science and the Decline of Religion?:
“It is often thought that the progress of science is accompanied by an inevitable decline in the plausibility and popularity of religious belief.”
Categories: Religion, Society.
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26 May 2015: Science and the Art of Conservation:
“The art conservator must be a combination of scientist, with a wide and current knowledge of characterisation techniques, an art historian, and detective and have infinite patience.”
Categories: Art, Imaging.
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20 May 2015: Joint Mathematics-Physics Colloquium: Multi-scale mechanics of soft materials, complex fluids and plant cell walls, and its application to food structure design:
“Here I highlight our recent advances[...] that enable in vitro measurement of relevant material properties of food systems, which span liquids, multiphase fluids and brittle solids.”
Categories: Biology, Chemistry, Condensed Matter, Engineering, Fluids, Food Science, Industry.
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18 May 2015: A spins-inside quantum processor:
“The wonderful promise of quantum computing is that the most profound and puzzling aspects of quantum mechanics…”
Categories: Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, Quantum Mechanics.
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11 May 2015: Physics, Art and Jewellery:
“Contemporary art is fascinated with physics.”
Categories: Art.
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05 May 2015: On the origin of Onsager vortices:
“In this talk, I will present an introduction to the physics of vortices, which are the elementary building blocks underpinning superfluid turbulence.”
Categories: Superfluids.
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27 Apr 2015: High-impact-factor syndrome: What, why, and what to do:
“High-impact-factor syndrome (HIFS) is a disease of scientists and administrators.”
Categories: Government and Policy.
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20 Apr 2015: Fermions in Flatland:
“Quasi-two-dimensional Fermi systems are of both fundamental interest and technological importance…”
Categories: Condensed Matter.
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14 Apr 2015: The Physics of Quantum Error-Correcting Codes:
“Error-correcting codes are an essential feature in all modern forms of digital communication.”
Categories: Computer Science, Condensed Matter, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information.
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23 Mar 2015: Photonic entanglement sharing:
“[Entanglement is] arguably, the most interesting and counterintuitive feature of fundamental quantum mechanics.”
Categories: Photonics, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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16 Mar 2015: Harnessing collective behaviour of half-light half-matter:
“Strong light-matter interactions in semiconductor microcavities give birth to exciton-polaritons – half-light half-matter quasiparticles.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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09 Mar 2015: JOINT MATHS-PHYSICS COLLOQUIUM – The Fields Medals 2014:
“Fields medals are the most prestigious prize in mathematics.”
Categories: Fields medals, Mathematics.
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02 Mar 2015: The black hole at the beginning of time:
“Could the big bang be hidden inside of a black hole?”
Categories: Cosmology, Quantum Gravity, Space, Time, Unified Theories.
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04 Dec 2014: New directions in optical imaging and manipulation:
“Trapping and rotation of micro particles remains a vibrant and exciting area with many applications across the sciences.”
Categories: Biology, Lasers, Optics.
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03 Nov 2014: 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry – The Chemistry of Optical Microscopy:
“This year the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Physics could easily be interchanged and some would consider the new outcome to be more logical.”
Categories: Chemistry, Nobel Prize, Optics.
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28 Oct 2014: After 50 years, Bell’s theorem still reverberates:
“Which of Bell’s notions, locality or local causality, expresses the causal structure of Einstein’s theory of relativity? I will argue for the answer: neither.”
Categories: Quantum Information, Quantum Mechanics.
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22 Oct 2014: 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics:
“I will give a non-technical description of the physics behind their invention, as well as the historical context and controversies around this particular prize.”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Electronics, Nobel Prize.
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10 Oct 2014: Genetic and optical approaches for describing neural circuits:
“In this seminar, I will describe our overall approach for linking neurons to behaviour, and share some of our recent published and unpublished results.”
Categories: Biology, Optics.
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22 Sep 2014: The Statistical Mechanics of Flocking:
“In this talk I will discuss the current models underpinning our understanding of flocking behaviour [...] This sort of behaviour is displayed across a variety of biological systems [...].”
Categories: Biology, Condensed Matter.
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15 Sep 2014: Ramanujan’s garden:
“In this talk I will discuss some of Ramanujan’s most famous results, and the role they play in fields such as knot theory, statistical mechanics and string theory.”
Categories: Mathematics.
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12 Sep 2014: One Field to the tune of another:
“In the spirit of our annual Nobel Physics Prize Colloquium, I will give the first of several Colloquia on the subjects of this year’s Fields medals, starting with Avila’s prize for work on a variety of Physics-inspired questions on the spectrum and dynamical properties of Schrödinger operators.”
Categories: Mathematics.
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02 Sep 2014: Control Engineering in Quantum Coherent Systems:
“In this talk we introduce the challenge of control engineering in these systems and show how advances in control promise to accelerate the development of quantum technologies.”
Categories: Engineering, Quantum Mechanics.
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19 Aug 2014: Searching for axions and axion-like particles with atomic magnetometers and nuclear magnetic resonance:
“Recently, attention has been drawn to the possibility of searching for ultralight fields that could be a significant component of Dark Matter.”
Categories: Cosmology, Particle Physics.
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12 Aug 2014: Medical physics, what’s physics got to do with medicine anyway?:
“There are numerous challenges in medicine which require the knowledge and specialist training of a physicist.”
Categories: Biology, Medicine.
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29 Jul 2014: Intriguing chemists and upsetting computer scientists using light and mirrors:
“Quantum information is the lovechild of quantum physics and computer science. In this talk we look at the science of quantum information: what it is and isn’t; why biologists, chemists, mathematicians and physicists might be interested in it; and where we are today.”
Categories: Chemistry, Computer Science, Photonics, Quantum Computing, Quantum Information, Quantum Optics.
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23 Jun 2014: The Electro-Optical Physics of Organic Solar Cells and Photodiodes:
“Organic semiconductors have emerged over the past two decades as useful and versatile additions to their inorganic counterparts.”
Categories: Chemistry, Climate, Condensed Matter, Electronics, Energy, Environment, Photonics.
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05 May 2014: Emergent States of Quantum Matter:
“Emergence can be particularly striking and challenging to understand for quantum matter…”
Categories: Condensed Matter, Quantum Mechanics.
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14 Apr 2014: Supernova 1987A – spectacular physics:
“The explosion of SN 1987A has provided us with the opportunity to learn more about core collapse supernovae than with any other event.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Space.
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08 Apr 2014: Cooling and manipulating complex particles:
“There is currently considerable interest in exploring the quantum nature of the motion of particles…”
Categories: Lasers, Quantum Mechanics, Quantum Optics.
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03 Apr 2014: Inflation: Observational Status and Future Prospects:
“In this colloquium, I will give a broad overview of the status of inflationary cosmology in the light of recent data and discuss my own work…”
Categories: Cosmology, General Relativity.
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21 Mar 2014: The BICEP2 Results: Cosmological Inflation and Primordial Gravitational Waves:
“These results demonstrate the presence of primordial gravitational waves generated in the very early universe.”
Categories: Astrophysics, Cosmology.
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05 Mar 2014: Optical Fibres – Past, Present & Future:
“Optical fibres in the 21st century permeate a rapidly increasing number of areas of human endeavour… “
Categories: History, Optics.
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27 Feb 2014: The Search for a New, Self-Correcting Phase of Matter:
“Is it possible, at least in principle, to design a quantum material that can sustain quantum information for very long times despite being in contact with a heat bath?”
Categories: Quantum Information.
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11 Oct 2013: 100 years on the Sagnac merry-go-round:
Michael Bromley
Categories: Condensed Matter.
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21 Jun 2013: Engineering a Microphone for Small Things:
Professor Matthew Cooper
Categories: Biology.
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31 May 2013: Fluctuation Theorems and the Dissipation Function: Insight for Thermodynamics:
Debra Bernhardt
Categories: Chemistry, Mathematics.
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16 May 2013: Chemical Dynamics Using Gaussian Wave Packets:
Terry Frankcombe
Categories: Chemistry.
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22 Apr 2013: Quantum Limits on Noise in Linear Amplifiers:
Professor Carlton Caves
Categories: Quantum Computing, Quantum Information.
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08 Apr 2013: Graphene and topological insulators: Teaching electrons new tricks:
Professor Michael Fuhrer
Categories: Nanotechnology.
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02 Apr 2013: Visual Guidance of Flight in Bees and Birds, and Applications to Robotics:
Professor Mandyam Srinivasan
Categories: Biology, Computer Science.