Presidential Reflections—science stuff and the President’s random path
Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO FRSN FAA
School of Mathematics and Statistics
UNSW Sydney
President, Royal Society of NSW
Date: Wednesday, 22 April 2020, 6.00pm
Venue: Zoom webinar
Video presentation: YouTube video
Annual General Meeting
The meeting will commence with the announcement of the results of Council Elections, including the procedural motions and outcome of the office-bearer ballots. The Ordinary General Meeting will follow immediately after the Annual General Meeting, the agenda for which is available on the website.
Ordinary General Meeting: Open Lecture
The President will sketch his seemingly erratic research career—from atomic physics to mathematics to astrophysics—using the metaphor of the random walk, and touching lightly on science and history along the way. Turning back two centuries, he will describe the Society’s significant early involvement in astronomy through its first President, Sir Thomas Brisbane GCB GCH FRS FRSE.
Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan received a PhD in atomic physics from University College London. After a short (and unpromising) year in industry, he joined the University of New South Wales, and is there still. His research career, covering many areas of physics and computational mathematics, has received a number of awards, including the Lyle Medal of the Australian Academy of Science. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a former President of the International Council on Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and an Officer of the Order of Australia.