The RSNSW Jak Kelly Award recognises excellence in postgraduate research in physics annually. The winner is selected from presenters at each year’s Australian Institute of Physics NSW Branch Postgraduate Awards, as advised to the Awards Committee of the Royal Society of NSW. This Award honours the life of Jak Kelly (1928-2012), Professor and Head of Physics at the University of NSW (1985-1989), Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney (2004), and President of the Royal Society of NSW (2005-2006). It was first awarded in 2010.

During his PhD studies on thin films at the University of Reading, Jak Kelly invented Electron Bombardment Deposition which became the standard method of high-temperature metal evaporation. While at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, he focussed on radiation damage in crystals, grown using his own single drop method. Other research, in collaboration with others, involved thermoluminescent dating, using ion implantation to improve the attachment of bone cells to prosthetic surfaces, the modelling and deposition of thin-film solar energy absorbers, irradiation of wool using ion beams to improve wool properties, studying low energy nuclear reactions, and proposing laser fusion improvements. More details of Professor Kelly’s life can be found here.