Royal Society of NSW News & Events

The Society is saddened to learn of the death of one of its Distinguished Fellows, Professor Richard Stanton AO DistFRSN FAA, on 25 August 2020 at the age of 94. Richard Limon Stanton was a distinguished economic geologist. Born in 1926, he completed his BSc degree at New England University College, University of Sydney (later to become the Un...

The Society is pleased to announce this forthcoming series of three webinars to be presented by the Royal Societies of Australia during October–December 2020. Stewardship of Country provides an opportunity to exchange views with knowledgeable practitioners and experts in a national conversation on managing Australia’s most valuable resour...

The Society was delighted that its Patron, Her Excellency The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of NSW, was able to present the Society’s 2019 Awards at a special ceremony in the Ballroom at Government House on Thursday, 13 August. The awards were unable to be presented at this year’s Annual Dinner, which had been held virtually, because ...

National Science Week 2020 is now upon us (15-23 August 2020) and the Royal Society of NSW is pleased to offer two presentations this year.  They are: 18 August 2020 at 6.00pm: "The COVID Curve in Content":or Back to the Future—something old and something new", Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM FRSN20 August 2020 at 6.00pm: "The Periodic Tab...

The Report of the Review of Senior Secondary Pathways, chaired by Society Fellow and Chancellor of Western Sydney University, Professor Peter Shergold AC FRSN FASSA FAICD, was released by the Australian Government in late July 2020. The report, titled Looking to the Future, argues that transition pathways presented to young adults are too often nar...

The Clancy Collection Exhibition of Early Maps, “Charting a Course: a 500-year story of discovery and the development of Sydney”, to be presented by Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM FRSN at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum on Wednesday, 19 August (4.00pm), has been postponed due to uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic The exhibiti...

The Society is pleased to advise that the latest issues of the Journal and Proceedings vol. 153-1 and the Bulletin vol. 443 have just been published and are now available on the website.  The principal content of this issue of the Journal is the 2019 RSNSW and Four Academies Forum: Making SPACE for Australia (including links to YouTube pr...

The Royal Society of NSW (RSNSW) is delighted to learn of the announcement in London by the Royal Society that one of its Fellows, Emeritus Professor Herbert Huppert FRS FRSN, has just been awarded the 2020 Royal Medal for Physical Sciences. The Royal Medals are awarded on behalf of the Queen each year, and have been issued annually since 1825. The...

Events held online during July 2020 by the Royal Society of NSW are now available on our YouTube channel.  These are the lecture presented at the1284th Ordinary General Meeting by Ms Elizabeth Ann McGregor OBE FRSN (Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art) on the evening of 8 July 2020, and the lecture presented at the meeting of the H...

Recent events held online by the the Royal Society of NSW are now available on our YouTube channel.  These are the 2020 Annual Dinner and Distinguished Fellow's Lecture, presented by Professor Brian Schmidt AC FRS DistFRSN FAA  (Vice-Chancellor of ANU) on the evening of 27 July 2020, and the Open Lecture presented at the 1284th Ordinary G...

The Society is pleased to advise that the latest issue of the Journal and Proceedings vol. 152-3 has just been published. This is a special issue from the 2019 Biennial Symposium of the Australian and New Zealand Associations of von Humboldt Fellows and is published online only on this website.

The ABC Science Show, broadcast on ABC Radio National at noon on Saturday, 13 June 2020, was devoted to the life and achievements of Lord Robert May of Oxford, OM AC Kt FRS DistFRSN FAA FTSE HonFAIB, who died at the age of 84 on 28 April 2020. The program is now available for download from the Science Show website. Lord May, a Distinguished Fellow ...

The Society is pleased to note the awards listed in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List to Society Fellows: a Companion of the Order to Australia (AC) to Ms Belinda Hutchinson AC FRSN; a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) to Professor Stephen Garton AM FRSN FAHA FASSA; and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) to Emeritus Professor Roy...

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted to learn of the recognition of three of its Fellows, Professor Gary Froyland FRSN FAA, Professor Katrina Joliffe FRSN FAA, and Distinguished Professor Ian Paulsen FAA FRSN,  being elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science in May 2020.   As Fellows of the Australian Acacdemy of Scien...

Recent events held online by the the Royal Society of NSW are now available on our YouTube channel.  For May 2020, these are the lecture titled “COVID-19 and confusion: the story of a nasty but nice viral receptor” presented at the Society’s Hunter Branch by Emeritus Professor Eugenie Lumbers AM DistFRSN FAA, and the inaugural [email protected] e...

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted to announce the release on its YouTube channel of the recording of the inaugural [email protected] presentation, conducted by webinar on the evening of Thursday, 21 May 2020. [email protected] is an initiative of Her Excellency, The Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of New South Wales, to open Government Ho...

The Royal Society of NSW is delighted that one of its Fellows, Professor John Shine AC FRS FRSN FAA, has just been elected, in 2020, as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He is well known for his role in discovering the Shine-Dalgarno gene sequence, and was responsible for the initiation and termination of protein-synthesis. Further, he was a...

Archer Materials, an Australian start-up led by CEO Dr Mohammad Choucair—a Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW and a former member of the Society’s Council—has just joined the IBM Q Network. Archer, which is developing room temperature quantum computing technology, is the first Australian company to join the IBM Q network as an ecosystem partner. Dr...

A high proportion of COVID-19 patients experience a total or partial loss of smell. This, in turn, has led to a call for anosmia (smell loss) to be treated as a symptom of the disease. Of importance in managing the coronavirus pandemic is the possibility that smell loss can begin as the only symptom in a person who is otherwise well, but who may be...

On 27 February 2020 the Royal Society of NSW and the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts presented a celebration of the 300th anniversary of Bach’s solo violin pieces with a lecture by Dr David Hush FRSN on Bach’s enduring popularity and influence. The evening featured performances by award winning violinist Anna Da Silva Chen of Bach’s Sonata for Sol...