Royal Society of NSW News & Events

Most face-to-face events and all online events conducted by the Royal Society of New South Wales are recorded and made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/royalsocnsw. On 11 February, an audience of more than 30 people attended the second meeting of the Hunter Branch's program of events for 2024 at the Newcastl...

At the Society's 157th Annual General Meeting, held on 17 April 2023, the results of the 2024 Council elections were announced. The election was conducted by electronic ballot over three weeks from noon on 25 March until noon on 15 April.  Some 200 ballots were submitted by 691 eligible voters, corresponding to a return rate of 29%. Proce...

On April 8, a column in the New York Times contained a live link to a 2016 paper in the Journal & Proceedings of the RSNSW. The linked paper was “The Curious Economist: William Stanley Jevons in Sydney,” by Ian Castles. The column (which requires subscription access) was “The Economic Luminary Who Loved Solar Eclipses. Inspired by science,...

Society Member, Maria MacNamara MRSN, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of the Space Industry Association of Australia (SIAA) — the national peak body for the Australian space industry. The SIAA, formed in 1992, works closely with Australian governments, international partners, academia, and industry to advance Australia’s space ind...

The Society’s 2023 Awards for Students and Early Career Researchers were presented at a ceremony held at the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University on 13 March 2024. Each of the award winners was introduced and interviewed by the renowned ABC science journalist and presenter of the ABC Science Show, Robyn Williams AM FRSN FAA, on their rese...

Professor Anthony Weiss AM FRSN FTSE, the McCaughey Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology of the University of Sydney, and Professor Anita Ho Baillie FRSN, the John Hooke Chair in Nanoscience, also at the University of Sydney,  have been named as winners in the Academy of Science (AAS) Honorific Awards for 2024.  Professor Ant...

The Council of the Society was delighted to learn that Fellow, Professor Johannes le Coutre FRSN, of the UNSW School of Chemical Engineering, was recently elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Food Science and Technology (IAFoST) for his outstanding accomplishments and contributions to the global food industry. At UNSW Sydney, where P...

Voting in the RSNSW Council Elections for 2024 will commence on Monday 25 March at noon and will continue for three weeks, closing at noon on Monday 15 April. This precedes the Society's Annual General Meeting, to be held in the Metcalfe Theatre of the State Library of NSW, commencing at 6.00 pm AEDT on 17 April. Full members of the Society, i.e., ...

Most face-to-face events and all online events conducted by the Royal Society of New South Wales are recorded and made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/royalsocnsw. Three events have been posted to YouTube from late February into early March 2024. On 21 February, an audience of more than 60 people attended t...

The Sydney Morning Herald of Monday, 19 February 2024 led with the headline ‘We made the wrong decisions: COVID-era mass school closures condemned’. The SMH had convened a panel of Australian experts to examine the impacts that school closures had on students’ education and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. Included in the panel was Society ...

Most face-to-face events and all online events conducted by the Royal Society of New South Wales are recorded and made available for subsequent viewing on our YouTube channel: youtube.com/royalsocnsw. The first event of 2024 was the 1319th Ordinary General Meeting held at the State Library of NSW on Wednesday, 7 February.  Following the OGM, a...

On 10 February 2024, the Minister for Skills and Training, The Hon. Brendan O’Connor MP, announced the appointment of Professor Barney Glover AO FRSN FTSE, the current Vice-Chancellor of Western Sydney University (WSU), as the new Commissioner of Jobs and Skills Australia. The role of Jobs and Skills Australia, a statutory authority established in ...

The Society is delighted to learn of the awards to the following Society Fellows and Members whose names appear in the 2024 Australia Day Honours List. Please note that since the original news item was published, the Society has been notified of additional members who were honoured in the Australia Day Honours List. These people are identified in t...

The Society was delighted to learn that one of its Fellows, and also the Librarian of the Society, Professor Stephen Garton AM FRSN FAHA FASSA, was elected by the Australian Academy of the Humanities as its twentieth President. Professor Garton will serve a three-year term commencing in 2024. Professor Garton’s research expertise is Australian hist...

The Society was deeply saddened to learn of the peaceful passing of Professor Ian Metcalfe MRSN, in Sydney, on 21 December 2023. Ian was a devoted husband to Amarjit Kaur, an incredible father to Noreen and David, and a beloved grandfather to John and James. He was a globally recognised and accomplished professor, researcher, lecturer, and author i...

The Royal Society of New South Wales was delighted to learn of the announcement by the University of Manchester that its next Vice-Chancellor, from 1 August 2024, will be Professor Duncan Ivison FRSN FAHA. Most recently Professor Ivison, who is a Professor of Political Philosophy, was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydne...

The December 2023 issue of the Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of NSW, published on 18 December, is now available online. This issue includes eight papers, abstracts from nine recent PhD theses, and obituaries for two Fellows of the Society, Emeritus Professor Stephen Gaukroger FRSN FAHA (University of Sydney) and Emeritus Professor Ad...

The Royal Society of NSW warmly welcomes 23 new members to the Society's ranks, effective from 29 November 2023. FellowsProfessor Sally CrippsProfessor Yingjie Jay GuoProfessor Richard HoldenProfessor Amir KartonDr Jiao Jiao LiProfessor Aduli Malau-AduliProfessor David MillerProfessor Deo PrasadProfessor Nicholas ReidProfessor Craig SimmonsProfesso...

At the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Australian Mathematical Society (AustMS) in early December, RSNSW Fellow and former Treasurer of the Society's Hunter Branch, Emeritus Professor George Willis FRSN FAA of the University of Newcastle, was announced as the winner of the AustMS George Szekeres Medal — the AustMS' most prestigious Medal that recognises...

On 7 December 2023, the Minister for Industry and Science, Mr Ed Husic MP, announced the appointment of Society Fellow, Emeritus Professor Roy Green FRSN, to the Board of CSIRO. On his LinkedIn page, Mr Husic noted that Roy Green has been a massive champion of Australian industry, innovation, and advanced manufacturing — a believer in our nation’s ...