DEADLINE – 17 AUGUST 2018 – 6.00 PM

Booking information:

We invite you to register to attend The Royal Society of Tasmania Medal Presentation and Lecture at Government House at 6.00pm on Thursday 30 August 2018.

All attendees will need to book and print their tickets by Friday 17 August 2018.
The bookings for this event will open on Wednesday 1st August and close on Friday 17 August 2018.
There is no charge to obtain a ticket and these may be booked via the Government House website as follows:

1. Go to http://www.govhouse.tas.gov.au and click on the ‘Events and Tours’ tab on the right-hand side of the homepage. Select ‘Reserve tickets’ for The Royal Society of Tasmania Medal Presentation & Lecture. You will be directed to the Government House Tasmania event on the http://Trybooking.com website.
2. Enter the Invitation Code: RSMP18. This will allow you access to continue your booking via the Trybooking website.
3. Complete the booking as per the Trybooking website instructions. Tickets should be booked in the names of the guests who wish to attend. Generic bookings, such as “Partner of Mr Bill Smith”, are NOT acceptable. In the ‘‘Capacity in which attending” box, we would be grateful if your guests would indicate the capacity in which they will be attending the reception, e.g:  Organising Committee, Board Member, Member, etc. Ticket(s) will be sent to the guest’s nominated email address.
4. Guests will need to print their ticket(s) and ensure that they bring it/them to Government House on the evening or, alternatively, the ticket(s) can be scanned from a mobile phone.
5. The closing date for bookings is Friday 17 August 2018 (6.00 pm).

We look forward to seeing you there.

David Wilson
Honorary Secretary

The Royal Society of Tasmania

Honours and Bursary Committee

About 20 years ago Dr. Peter Smith, a long time and valued member of the Society, noticed with the then Secretary that there were Tasmanian students in science who, having represented this state at a National science event of substance, were chosen to travel overseas and represent Australia at a similar but globally oriented activity. Over the years since, the Society has supported such students when they applied to the Society, but it has been very much ad hoc and not even advertised.

Last year the Council made a decision based on a recommendation from the Honours Committee that we would formalise this option of supporting outstanding young students who represent Australia at an international summer school, or similar. We named this a “Royal Society of Tasmania Bursary” and circulated details to key teachers around the state in both government and private schools.

We received quality applications for bursaries and are delighted to report that in this 175th year of the Society, nine young people will attend global science activities in Beijing, Cape Kennedy and London. We also supported two students to attend the Junior ANZAAS* school in Melbourne. The age range of the students is around sixteen to seventeen years old. (The names of this year’s recipients are set out below.)

In following years we will continue to offer these bursaries, but the number awarded is more likely to be about three or four per year. The standard of work our young people are doing now is quite outstanding and so our members can rest assured that the Society continues to “advance knowledge” in the next generation. It is also our fervent hope that we can move into the arts, as we acknowledge that key part of learning and developing.

Dr John G. Thorne AM

Chairman of the RST Honours and Bursary Committee

Recipients of Royal Society of Tasmania bursaries for 2018.

Dominic Grose and Max Cross attended the Junior ANZAAS Science School in Melbourne.

Rose Donnelly and Fergus Ayton attended the world-wide Science Summer  Experience in London.

Raiden Lemon attended the global physics challenge in Beijing.

As a team, Alex Titchen, Koh Kawaguchi, Fergus Charles, Fabian Natoli,  James Pash and Alex Hogan-Jones participated in the NASA/ Cape Kennedy  science challenge.

All the students who traveled overseas were representing Australia  having been chosen from an earlier but similar Australia-wide event.

*ANZASS – The Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science is an organisation that was founded in 1888 by Archibald Liversidge as the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science to promote science.

The RST Honours and Bursary Committee

Peter Smith Medal.

Nominations have been called for the Peter Smith Medal. This medal is awarded biennially to an outstanding early career researcher in any field. The recipient will receive a medal and deliver “The Peter Smith Lecture” to the Society.

For the purpose of the medal, “early career” is taken to mean that the time since the award of a PhD, at the award nomination deadline, is less than seven (7) years.

The conditions of the award are:

• The works are to have been largely carried out in Tasmania or under the aegis of a Tasmanian-based organisation and within the Society’s purview; and
• The nationality of the recipient is not to be considered in making the Award, that is, the Award is not restricted to Australian nationals.

The closing date for nominations is September 30, 2018.

Appendix F guideline for nominations is included on our web page (see below), and all nominations must be forwarded in digital form by the due date. Self-nominatiion is not allowed.

Members of the Society and other interested parties are encouraged to be pro-active in sharing this information.

Nominations should be sent to –

The Secretary – (email) royal.society@tmag.tas.gov.au

Dr John G. Thorne AM

Chairman

RST – Honours – Appendix F 

APPENDIX F

Guide for Medal Nominations of the Royal Society of Tasmania

And Suggested Pro Forms 

The following is a guide for nominating candidates for the Royal Society of Tasmania Medals:

• M. Johnston Memorial Medal
• The Royal Society of Tasmania Medal
• Clive Lord Memorial Medal
• R. Banks Medal
• Peter Smith Medal

The first page of the nomination should list:

• The name of the medal
• The name of the candidate and contact address and details
• The name of the proposer and contact address and details

No self-nominations are allowed.

A description of the candidate’s achievements relevant to the particular medal should follow. It should be no more than one page and should be written concisely and in language that is widely understood outside the candidate’s field of research. The candidate’s research or other scholarly contributions to science, history or other field of learning, industry or society should be clearly stated.

A full curriculum vitaefor the Honours Committee should be provided by the nominee to the nominator in confidence. It should include the candidate’s date of birth, the date/s of receipt of degrees and a full list of published works. The most significant publications should be highlighted (e.g. With an asterisk). Where the candidate’s standing relies on many co-authored papers, the candidate’s role in those significant publications should be indicated.

The Honours Committee of the Royal Society of Tasmania has limited ability to seek additional information and therefore depends on the nomination papers to provide a full and fair account of the candidate’s suitability, taking into account the criteria of the particular medal applied for.

All nominations should be submitted online to the Honorary Secretary of the Society by the due date.

Confidentiality is the hallmark of all the Honours Committee deliberations and will be strictly adhered to. All matters pertaining to the Society Awards (nominations, selection, deliberation by the Honours Committee and Council, and subsequent notification to recipients) are confidential until the public announcement of the Awards at the Society’s Annual General Meeting each year. This information about confidentiality must also be observed by both the nominator and nominee.

Honours, Awards and Bursaries Committee

Bursaries:

Our Society now has the opportunity to offer up to three or four bursaries per year for Tasmanian students who have been selected to attend an overseas science, engineering or mathematics peak activity having attended a similar one in Australia. The amount of each bursary will be in the order of $1000.

We have always supported the youth in the Tasmanian community and this bursary scheme is a further step.

Typically a Tasmanian student at the end of Grade 11 may be chosen to attend a ‘summer school’ in one of the sciences or a combination, such as “The National Youth Science Forum” or “The Australian Mathematics Olympiad”. Following those events, a handful are recommended or chosen to represent Australia and attend an international equivalent. It is those youngsters that we wish to assist. In the past we actually have helped a number, but a recent announcement to several peak organisations brings the name and status of the Royal Society to the forefront in the school communities.

The Royal Society of Tasmania is offering financial support for Tasmanian students selected to attend international events in science, mathematics or engineering.

Applicants will be encouraged to forward one or two pages to the Society about their experience at the specific summer school (or similar) and aspirations of further study or even work choices.

In addition, a copy of the official invitation to attend the overseas science/mathematics event is essential. To support the application the appropriate teacher at school needs to write a supportive letter.

Dr John G. Thorne  AM

2018

10th April: M.R. Banks medal winner Prof Michael Breadmore: Chemical answers now – safer food, water and environment through chemistry on a chip
1st May: Ms Sophie Muller Director of the Tasmanian Climate Change Office in the Department of Premier and Cabinet – Putting the change in climate change
5th June: Dr Andreas Klocker – Sistema Huautla, Cave diving for science in one of the world’s most spectacular deep caves
3rd July: Joint Astronomy lecture
10th August: Margaret MacMillan, the noted Canadian historian of WW1, in Hobart as part of a short National speaking tour
4th September: A.Prof Arko Lucieer
2nd October: Postgraduate night
14th November: Susannah Fullerton OAM FRS (N), President of the Jane Austen Society – And so to bed … The Diary of Samuel Pepys
4th December: UTAS Vice Chancellor Prof. Rufus Black for Christmas Lecture and dinner.

2017-RST Annual Report