The Royal Society of Tasmania

The advancement of knowledge

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Royal Society Bursary Awards for 2019

 Royal Society of Tasmania

awards bursaries to Tasmanian students 

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In 2019, the Royal Society offered bursaries to Tasmanian secondary/senior secondary students to represent Australia at an international event. The bursaries were offered in the fields of science, mathematics, engineering, arts, humanities, and social sciences, in keeping with the aim of the society of ‘advancing knowledge’ in a wide variety of ways.

These bursaries and the application process were widely advertised to government, independent and Catholic schools, subject associations, curriculum leaders, and on the RST website.

The Chair of the Bursary Committee was Dr Deborah Beswick, and committee members were Dr Robert Johnson, Dr Adele Wilson, Penny Cocker and Andrew Porter.

High quality, detailed applications were received by the committee.

Four bursaries were awarded.

Three of these were for attendance at the International RoboCup competition in Sydney, July 2019.

These were awarded to Michael Duffett from Rosny College, and Will Gaffney and Thomas Norgaard from Rose Bay High School.

Sophia Newton, from Elizabeth College, was awarded a bursary to attend a STEM Accelerator Tour in the United States, in April 2020.

     

Dr Deborah Beswick

Chair of the Bursary Committee

 

Congratulations to the all the very deserving recipients

 

Student Bursaries 2020

Royal Society of Tasmania

BURSARIES

for TASMANIAN STUDENTS 2020

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania offers bursaries for Tasmanian secondary/senior secondary students who have been selected through a competitive process to represent Australia at an international event. The amount of each bursary may be up to $1,000.

What is the Royal Society of Tasmania?

The Society has been in active existence since 1843 and we have continued to achieve our aim of ‘advancing knowledge’ in a wide variety of ways. The bursaries are one way in which we support the youth of Tasmania.

Who can apply?

In 2018 bursaries were offered in the fields of science, mathematics and engineering. In 2019 the bursary program was broadened to also support students selected through a competitive process for international events in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

What is the closing date?

There is no closing date for applications, as applications are considered on a rolling basis throughout the year.

How to apply:

Students need to send a written application including:

  • a brief descriptor of the international summer school or event they have been selected to attend, including dates and costs
  • a copy of the recommendation from the Australian selection event or activity they were selected to attend
  • a concise statement, written by the student, about their goals and aspirations and a short CV (max 2 pages)
  • the endorsement of a senior staff member of their school.

Note: As the student/staff member may be contacted for interview/further information please provide contact phone numbers.

Send applications to: deborahkathleen.beswick@gmail.com

Dr Deborah Beswick
Chair, Bursaries Committee
The Royal Society of Tasmania

Australian Academy of Science – Statement on Bushfires and Climate Change

The Australian Academy of Science has
released a statement on the science behind
bushfires and climate change. 

 

See the Statement below or follow this link to read it
on the Australian Academy of Science website.

Statement regarding Australian bushfires

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice of Annual General Meeting – 1 March 2020

Royal Society of Tasmania

Annual General Meeting and Lecture – Sunday 1st  March

 

The Annual General Meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania will be held on Sunday 1 March 2020 at 3 pm at the new location, The Old Woolstore Hotel lecture theatre, 1 Macquarie Street.

Nominations for positions on the Royal Society of Tasmania Council are now open for election at the Annual General Meeting.

 

The following positions are open for nomination:

Three Council Members (3 and 1 years)

Student Member (3 year)

Early Career Researcher (3 years)

Honorary Secretary (1 year)

Honorary Treasurer (1 year)

President (2 years maximum)

Vice President (2 years maximum)

Nominations must be received by midnight on Saturday 22rd February 2020.

A copy of the nomination form can be downloaded  here.

Copies may also be obtained from the RST office, Wednesdays 9:00am through 12 noon.

The completed and signed form may be returned by mail to:

The Returning Officer c/- The Royal Society of Tasmania
GPO Box 1166 Hobart TAS 7001

Deliver to the office, 19 Davey Street Hobart TAS 7001

or a signed and scanned copy may be emailed to:
royal.society@tmag.tas.gov.au

For further information please contact the Honorary Secretary, David Wilson on 0409 854 101.

 

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Following the AGM, Prof. Jean-Philippe Beaulieu will present a lecture entitled 

The Secret Garden at Recherche Bay,1792

All members and friends are invited to attend.

 

 

Dr Jean-Philippe Beaulieu holds the inaugural David Warren Endowed Chair of Astrophysics at the University of Tasmania. Previously he was the Directeur de recherche CNRS, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris in France.

Dr Beaulieu’s illustrious research career includes the 1996 Louis Armand Prize from the French Academy of Science. He is part of numerous major international collaborations and is co-lead investigator on the European Space Agency ARIEL mission, a space telescope planned for launch in 2028.

Dr Beaulieu has long collaborated with  researchers in Tasmania and is a co-author of the 2016 publication, Secret Garden at Recherche Bay – 1792. The book tells the story of Felix Lahaye, a gardener with Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux’s French expedition, and the garden he created at Recherche Bay.

 

Admission: free for members of The Royal Society of Tasmania *
      $6 general admission
      $4 for students and Friends of TMAG
* membership forms available at the door

Unveiling of the Commemorative Plaque

 

The final event for the year long celebration of the 175th Anniversary of the Society took place on Monday 14th October 2019 at the Water Door, the Davey Street entrance of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  

 

A commemorative plaque was commissioned and installed. It was unveiled on Monday by Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania. Also conducting the ceremony were the President of the Royal Society of Tasmania, Professor Ross Large AO and Director of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Janet Carding.

 

Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania (right), with Janet Carding (Director of TMAG) and Prof Ross Large AO (President of the Royal Society of Tasmania

Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania (right) with Janet Carding, Director of TMAG

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr Anita Hansen, Chair of the 175 Anniversary committee, and Prof Ross Large AO, RST President

Chel Bardell, RST Northern Council Member, and Prof Ross Large AO, RST President

 

Her Excellency Professor the Honourable Kate Warner AC, Governor of Tasmania (right) with RST Council member, Greg Lehman

(Left to right) Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens Director Gary Davies, Major Malcom McDowell and Stephenie Cahalan, Manager Development Philanthropy, TMAG

Innaugural Peter Smith medal

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The 2019 Peter Smith medal lecture was delivered by

Dr. Lucia McCallum

on Tuesday, 1 October 2019

at the Royal Society of Tasmania lecture room, Dunn Place, Hobart.

 

The Dish redux – from the Apollo Mission to Earth surveying.

 

 

Dr Lucia McCallum is the inaugural recipient of the Peter Smith Medal.

Established in 2017, this medal is awarded biennially by The Royal Society of Tasmania to an outstanding early career researcher in any field.

Dr McCallum is a post-doctoral Research Fellow at the UTAS School of Maths & Physics, radio astronomy group. She is a geodesist – or Earth surveyor.  Her field of research is the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) technique, using signals from far distant radio galaxies to measure the Earth. 

 

Mt Pleasant Radio Telescope, JJ Harrison

Lucia is involved with the AuScope VLBI project, which utilises the UTAS Mt Pleasant radio telescope (which can be seen to best advantage from a table at Frogmore Creek Winery, Cambridge) as well as two other UTAS operated radio telescopes in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. This facility array ties in Australian geodesy with the International Geospatial Reference Frame and is coordinated within the International VLBI Service and the Asian Oceania VLBI Group.
VLBI measurements provide imperative scientific information on the rotation of the Earth, the movement of continental plates and the effects of earthquakes. VLBI also provides the reference frame for all other types of geographic positioning technologies such as GPS, which we have come to rely on in our smartphones and which is allowing the development and operation of autonomous vehicles.

 

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Lucia received her Diplom-Ingenieur  from the University of Technology of Vienna, Austria, with a thesis entitled “Calculation of the Earth Rotation Vector with VLBI and Ringlaser measurements”. She continued to pursue her research in VLBI satellite tracking, and was awarded her PhD in Vienna in 2013.
Her first post-doctoral appointment led her to Hobart in 2014. In 2015, she was awarded the Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship by the Austrian Science Fund – ‘Sibling Radio Telescopes for Geodesy – Optimising the use of co-located VLBI telescopes in the southern hemisphere’.
In 2017 she received a Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council, with the project ‘Achieving millimetre geodesy with space tie satellites’. Her research interests include global reference frames, earth rotation, and the emerging field of space ties.

 

The Society congratulates Dr McCallum on her  achievements.

 

 

More about the Peter Smith Medal
The Peter Smith Medal was established in 2017 and is awarded biennially to an outstanding early career researcher in any field. The winner receives a medal and delivers “The Peter Smith Lecture” to the Society. To be eligible for nomination, the research and/or works must be largely carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian-based organisation and within the Society’s purview. The Award is not restricted to Australian nationals. The medal will be open for nominations again in 2020 – click here to go to our Award & Medal guidelines

Christmas Lecture – Dr Alison Alexander – Maria Lord: from convict to Governor’s lady

In case you hadn’t noticed, Christmas is just around the corner.

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania

will present the Christmas Lecture on 

  Tuesday 3 December 2019

at CSRIO Lecture Theatre

Castray Esplanade, Battery Point

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  We are delighted to announce that our 2019 Christmas speaker is the renowned Tasmanian historian and author

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Dr Alison Alexander

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The topic draws from the one of her earlier and most popular works:

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The lecture will be followed by a two-course buffet meal.

Click here for your invitation to the dinner:   2019 Christmas Dinner Invitation

Bookings close 20 November 2019

Click here to view the Christmas Function Dinner Menu.

 

 

 

 

 

Nominations open for Royal Society Doctoral Awards 2019

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The Royal Society of Tasmania Annual Doctoral (PhD) Awards

Call for Nominations

Closing date: 15 November 2019

 

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania established this award in 1998 to honour young, recently-graduated doctoral (PhD) awardees who have made significant advances in the course of their doctoral research. Each award is valued at $1000. Two awards may be made in any one year.

Conditions

• To be eligible for the Award, no more than three years should have elapsed since the conferring of the PhD degree on the nominee (as at the closing date for nominations – 15 November 2019).

• The honours may be awarded in any field within the purview of the Society, ie sciences, medicine, arts or humanities.

• The Awards are for work leading to significant advances based on the PhD research, as evidenced by published or in press peer-reviewed papers in the national/international literature.

• The works are to have been largely carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian-based organisation.

• The Award is not restricted to Australian nationals.

• Nominees must have been under 35 years of age on the day of conferment of the PhD.

 

Submitting nominations

Please email nominations to      royal.society@tmag.tas.gov.au    

and marked: Doctoral Award Nomination

For attention: Honorary Secretary

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What to include:

• A full academic curriculum vitae including the date of birth, the date of conferring of degrees (including the date of PhD conferment) and a full list of published works. The most significant works are to be highlighted with an asterisk. Where the candidate’s standing relies on many co-authored papers, the candidate’s roles in those significant publications should be indicated.

• An abstract (not more than one A4 page) of the PhD study, including the thesis title.

• A letter of nomination from the candidate’s Department Manager and/or PhD supervisor. Applications will not be considered without this document, which must include a statement of the new and original contribution to the field of research.

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Key dates:

· Nominations must be received by 15 November 2019.
· The Awards will be announced at the Society’s Annual General Meeting in Hobart in March 2020.

 

Prof. Ross Large AO,

President

Congratulations – Trevor McDougall

 

The Royal Society of Tasmania congratulates member and RST medallist Prof. Trevor McDougall AC, who has been elected President of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO).

 

  Prof. McDougall is a leading figure internationally in the thermodynamics of seawater, the movement of energy through the oceans. His research has provided insight into how seawater mixes under different conditions, which is crucial for the understanding of climate change.

 

Trevor is one of Australia’s most decorated scientists. His awards include the Royal Society of Tasmania Medal, the Prince Albert I Medal of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans, and Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to science, and to education, particularly in the area of ocean thermodynamics, as an academic, and researcher, to furthering the understanding of climate science, and as a mentor of young scientists. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of New South Wales, the Royal Society (London). He is the Scientia Professor of Ocean Physics at the University of New South Wales.

 

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IAPSO has the prime goal of “promoting the study of scientific problems relating to the oceans and the interactions taking place at the sea floor, coastal, and atmospheric boundaries insofar as such research is conducted by the use of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.”