Royal Society of NSW News & Events

An inaugural meeting to establish the Hunter Branch of the Royal Society of NSW is planned. Date: Wednesday, 9 October 2019 at 6.00 pmVenue: Newcastle Club, 40 Newcomen Street, Newcastle NSWEnquiries: Emerita Professor Eugenie Lumbers, Acting Honorary Secretary, 0416 154 106 Following the meeting, Professor Hugh Durrant-White, NSW Chief Scientist a...

     “Electricity, astronomy, and natural history:     from colonial Sydney to Royal Sweden, and     a ladies' academy of science in between”     Anne Harbers Date: Monday 23 September 2019, 6pm for 6.30pm Venue: Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney What did Fanny Macl...

The June 2019 issue (Vol. 152-1) of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales has just been published. Much of the content of this issue is devoted to papers arising from the November 2018 Royal Society of NSW and Four Academies Forum, the focus of which was “Towards a prosperous yet sustainable Australia—what now for the ...

The President of the Royal Society of NSW, Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO, FRSN, has announced that the Society is seeking to appoint its first Executive Officer. The Exective Officer will report to the President and will have the opportunity to drive a program of transformation in a well-established, prestigious learned society, based in Sydney.&...

The Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AO QC, has now formally agreed to be the Patron of the Society. 

  “Visual perception in Aboriginal art”  Emeritus Professor Barbara Gillam  FASSA FRSN  School of Psychology, UNSW Thursday, 18 July 2019Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt Street, Sydney Aboriginal painting now has a world-wide reputation.  However it has largely been regarded as conceptual rathe...

  “The telomere effect”   Professor Elizabeth Blackburn   AC FAA FRS DistFRSN   Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysics   University of California San Francisco Friday 16 August 2019, 6.30pmCity Recital Hall, 2 Angel Place, Sydney Cost: $35 without discount, $25 for RSNSW Members and Fellows, and for U...

The Royal Society of NSW is pleased to acknowledge Fellows and Members of the Society who receive awards in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. Recipients in the 2019 list include: Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) Emeritus Professor Leo Radom AC FRSN, for eminent service to science, particularly to computational chemistry, as an academic, au...

Tom Kenneally and others pre-dinner The President greets the Governor Sir Anthony Mason is presented with his Distinguished Fellowship certificate Emma Johnston receives the Clarke Medal Earnest dinner conversation between Ian Wilkinson and Marian Kernahan The Distinguished Fellow's address is given by Michelle Simmons Nalini Joshi delivers the vot...

University of Cambridge Professor Herbert Huppert FRS FRSN is giving a public lecture at Sydney University on Wednesday 17 April. Understanding carbon in the air: can we avert a climate catastrophe? The event is free, but registration is necessary.

Noel Hush, one of our inaugural Fellows (and Distinguished Fellow) died on Wednesday 20 March, following a heart attack.  He was 94. Professor Hush was a chemist of international standing.  After graduating from the University of Sydney in the late 1940s and after completing a couple of years there as a research fellow, he took up various...

The 152nd AGM will be held prior to the OGM on Wednesday 3 April 2019 at the State Library of NSW, Shakespeare Place, Sydney.  As part of the AGM, the election of candidates to Council will be held.  Polling will open at 5.30 pm and close at 6.15 pm.  There are 12 candidates for 10 positions as Councillors; the list of candidates is ...

Immediate past-President Brynn Hibbert is the winner of the first round of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute's competition for stories about the periodic table, run as part of the International Year of the Periodic Table.  You can read his story about Sir Humphry Davy and the discovery of iodine here.

The following letter by our President, Emeritus Professor Ian Sloan AO, was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on Monday 4 March 2019 under the above headline (which was the main letters headline for the day). “The Royal Society of NSW, Australia’s oldest scientific and cultural organisation, applauds the recommendation of the Upper House’s Par...

Australia Day honours have been awarded to the following: Jillian Broadbent AO FRSN, elevated to AC Leonard Fisher FRSN, appointed OAM (Barney) Bevil Milton Glover FRSN, appointed AO Adrian Hibberd FRSN, appointed AM Robert Bain Thomas AM FRSN, elevated to AO If you know of any Members or Fellows we have missed, please email the Royal Society at ro...

Royal Society of NSW Scholarship Award Winners for 2018 Fiona McDougall, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University Evelyn Todd, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney There was also a 3-minute thesis (3MT) talk: “Finding the best-fitting jeans for railway foundations” by Mr Chuhao Liu, 2018 3MT winner, Univers...

Professor Mark Compton FRSN has been announced as the next Lord Prior of the Order of St John, also known as St John International.  The Order is devoted to the relief of sickness and injury, receiving a royal charter from Queen Victoria in 1888.  It is perhaps best known in Australia for St John Ambulance.

Wednesday 6 February 1270th OGM and open lecture: 2018 Scholarship presentations Evelyn Todd, University of Sydney “Using genetics to improve athletic performance in throughbred horses” Fiona McDougall, Macquarie University “Human-associated bacteria and antibiotic resistance in grey-headed flying foxes” Venue: State Library of NSW, Shakespeare Pla...

Emeritus Professor John Carter AM FRSN and Professor Mark Hoffman FRSN have been appointed by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment to investigate the structural integrity of the Opal Tower apartment building at Homebush.  We wish them speedy success. (Following initial investigations, Professor Stephen Foster was also engaged to assi...

The Society's awards for 2018 (Clarke Medal, Edgeworth David Medal, History & Philosophy of Science Medal, James Cook Medal, Poggendorff Lecture and RSNSW Scholarship) were announced by the President at the OGM on 5 December. Full details are available here.