Royal Society of NSW News & Events

  “Dark matter in the universe”  The Dirac Lecture and award of the Dirac Medal  Duffield Professor Kenneth Freeman FRS  Australian National University Thursday 13 October 2016Tyree Room, John Niland Scientia Building, UNSW The Dirac Medal is based on rules established in 1990 by the then Vice Chancellor of t...

  “Celebrating the 200th birthday of Royal  Botanic Gardens: a personal history of  57 years of science”  Dr Barbara Briggs   Honorary Research Associate  Royal Botanic Gardens Wednesday 3 August 2016Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney The Royal Society of New South ...

"Recent studies on the total synthesis of natural products and related systems"  Professor Martin Banwell Research School of Chemistry Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University Canberra Thursday 20 November 2014 Lecture Theatre 4, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney Professor Banwell is an organic c...

"Latest developments in small modular reactors" Dr Adrian (Adi) Paterson Chief Executive Officer,Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Held in conjunction with the Nuclear Engineering Panel of the Sydney Branch of Engineers Australia, the Australian Nuclear Association and the Australian Institute of Energy Date: Monday 16 February...

“The future of work” Royal Society of NSW and Four Academies Forum His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (ret'd), Vice Regal Patron of the RSNSW Tuesday 15 September 2015Government House, Sydney The Royal Society of NSW and Four Academies Forum was the inaugural collaborative event between the Society and the NSW-chapters of the...

  Guest of Honour Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO   Vice Regal Patron of the Society   and Governor of NSW Tuesday 5 May 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Dame Marie Bashir was made a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal Society, was presented with the 2014 Royal Society of NSW Medal, and gave the Di...

“Is the brain the right size?”   Scientia Professor George Paxinos AO  School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Wednesday 1 April 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Scientia Professor George Paxinos described the outstanding body of research that he has conducted over many years on mapping the structure of th...

“The revolution in radio astronomy”   Professor Elaine Sadler  University of Sydney Wednesday 7 October 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Radio astronomy is currently entering a 'golden age', when new telescopes of unprecedented sensitivity will allow us to explore the Universe in ways that have neve...

“Science in literature”   Dr James Ley   Editor, Sydney Review of Books Wednesday 1 July 2015Union University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Literature and science have historically been seen as competing and sometimes opposed disciplines, confined to their own discrete modes of comprehension. James Ley will consider s...

"From the Solar Nebula to the Deep Earth – a Geological Journey"   Professor Bill Griffin  Distinguished Professor of Geochemistry,  Macquarie University Date: Thursday 6 August 2015 Venue: Building Y3A, Theatre 1, Macquarie University Bill will tell the story of the journey to the surface of the remarkable rocks ...

“Quantum entanglement and superconductivity”   Professor Subir Sachdev   Professor of Physics, Harvard University Held in conjunction with UNSW and the Australian Institute of Physics Tuesday 1 September 2015John B. Reid Theatre, AGSM Building, UNSW Einstein called it "spooky action at a distance". Entanglement is a counter-intu...

“Super-resolution microscopy: understanding how T-cells make decisions”   Scientia Professor Katharina Gaus  ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced   Molecular Imaging   Program in Membrane Interface Biology, UNSW​ Wednesday 4 March 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Professor Gaus d...

“Trait-based ecology”   Professor Mark Westoby   Department of Biological Sciences   Macquarie University  NSW Scientist of the Year 2014 Wednesday 2 September 2015Union University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Ecological strategies summarize the variety of styles that different plant species have ...

"Cultural transitions over the last 100,000 years and the future"   Professor Roland Fletcher   Professor of Theoretical and World Archaeology   University of Sydney Date: Wednesday 5 August 2015 Venue: Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street Sydney Professor Fletcher described and explained the major cultur...

“The wonders of the Hubble Space Telescope”   Professor Michael Burton  School of Physics, UNSW Friday 21 August 2015University of Sydney Business School CBD campus, Level 17, 133 Castlereagh St., Sydney 25 years ago, on 24 April 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into Earth orbit. Aside, perhaps, from Galileo’s origi...

“Big science and big history: From the big bang to us”   Professor David Christian   Director of Big History Institute   Macquarie University Thursday 20 August 2015University of Sydney Business School CBD campus, Level 17, 133 Castlereagh St., Sydney Big History examines our past, explains our present, and imagines ou...

“Aboriginal astronomy and the clash of cultures”   Dr Ragbir Bhathal Tuesday 18 August 2015University of Sydney Business School CBD campus, Level 17, 133 Castlereagh St., Sydney The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been observing the night sky for thousands of years. In that period of time they named the celestial objects...

“The science of spontaneity: Fred Astaire as consummate craftsman”   Dr Kathleen Riley Wednesday 3 June 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney This talk focused on the science behind Fred Astaire's apparent effortlessness, his ability to make something that was technically complex and endlessly rehearsed look easy ...

“From quantum devices to quantum machines”   James Colless  ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered  Quantum Systems (EQuS),  University of Sydney  Jak Kelly Award winner for 2015 Wednesday 2 December 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney The Jak Kelly Award was created in h...

“Big history”   Professor David Christian  Director, The Big History Institute  Macquarie University Wednesday 4 November 2015Union, University and Schools Club, 25 Bent Street, Sydney Since the beginnings of human history, taking stories from the past and synthesising them has delivered far more than the sum of the pa...