“Where next for higher education after COVID-19?”

Professor Mark Scott AO FRSN

Vice-Chancellor and Principal
The University of Sydney

Date: Wednesday, 2 February 2022, 6.30 pm AEDT 
Venue: Zoom Webinar.  Click here for help with getting started with Zoom. 
Entry: No Charge
All are welcome

Summary:  The COVID-19 pandemic forced dramatic changes to teaching, research and revenue sources for Australian universities. In this talk, University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Mark Scott AO will discuss how the higher education sector can build on the lessons made in the past two years to deliver transformational teaching and learning, and support research that changes the world for good.

As Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Mark Scott AO FRSN leads the University of Sydney’s strategic direction, in close consultation with the Chancellor, senior leaders and the University’s Senate and Academic Board.

Professor Scott is a proud alumnus of the University and holds a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma of Education, a Master of Arts (Political Science and Government), an Honorary Doctorate (Letters) and a Professor of Practice (Education and Media) from the University of Sydney, as well as a Master of Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of NSW and University of Technology Sydney.

In the role of Vice-Chancellor, he is committed to driving transformative change that will support students and staff from all backgrounds to excel and realise their potential, solve the world’s most pressing challenges and secure a prosperous future for the University.

Professor Scott is a highly respected and successful senior leader of large and complex institutions, across public service, education and the media. Under his leadership as Secretary of the NSW Department of Education (2016 to 2021) the Department secured a record 10-year funding agreement for public schools, created School Infrastructure NSW to deliver an additional 160,000 classroom places and established the School Leadership Institute to train and develop aspiring school principals across the state.

His distinguished record of strategic leadership includes a decade as Managing Director of the ABC (2006 to 2016), where he led the organisation’s transformation to be a public broadcaster in the digital era. Over that time, the ABC created new services like iview, News 24, ABC3 and digital radio; and expanded online and mobile services, such as podcasting and ABC News online.

Professor Scott has also held a number of senior editorial roles at Fairfax, including Education Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and Editor-in-Chief of metropolitan, regional and community newspapers. His contribution to education reaches back to the start of his career, as a teacher in Sydney. He built on his interest in education with senior policy and leadership positions with two NSW education ministers – Terry Metherell and Virginia Chadwick – and in 2011 he was named an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Jean Garling Room
Mitchell Building, State Library of NSW
1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney

EXHIBITION NOW OPEN

Opening Hours: Monday 2-5 pm; Thursday 2-5 pm; Sunday 2-5 pm from 9 January until 30 June 2022

About the Exhibition: This Exhibition begins a year of celebrations to mark the Society’s contributions to the intellectual life of NSW over 200 years. It is the perfect moment to reinforce our commitment to enriching lives through knowledge and inquiry. As we think about our future, we are informed by our history.

NEXUS has two meanings: a central or focal point; and a connection or series of connections linking two or more things. From the beginning, the Society has epitomised both meanings, as a forum for ideas and discovery, exposing us to the latest research and promoting awareness of some of the major issues confronting humanity. With 200 years of history, the exhibition can only showcase a fraction of the Society’s archives and achievements in telling the story of its Origins, Ideas, Advances, and Impacts.

Highlights of the exhibition include: 

• Letters from Professor Sir T W Edgeworth David, Antarctic explorer, on sun thaw line observations and arranging a presentation on the British Antarctic Expedition (1907 – 1909) led by Sir Ernest Shackleton
• Two original letters, including one with box-kite illustrations, of Lawrence Hargrave, a noted aviation pioneer and the first in Australia to fly (attached to four box kites of his own design), who published 23 papers on aeronautics in the Society’s Journal & Proceedings.

Engineering and related Challenges in Decarbonising the Electricity System

Professor Stephen Wilson 
University of Queensland

A joint meeting of the Australian Institute of Energy, the Australian Nuclear Association, the Sydney Division of Engineers Australia, and the Royal Society of NSW — this year organised by the Australian Nuclear Association.

Date: Wednesday, 16 February 2022, 6.00 pm AEDT
Venue: Either in person at the UTS Aerial Function Centre ( Building 10, Level 7, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo) and via a Zoom webinar
Entry: No charge
Registration:  is required for in-person attendance at UTS or the Zoom Webinar

Summary: Everyone, it seems, is talking about the energy transition. Electricity is pivotal, thermal power plants are highly visible, and few in number. Although far short of total greenhouse gas emissions, power generation is the single largest piece of the emissions pie in most countries, including Australia. Electricity is the obvious place to start reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and reduction strategies in other sectors—such as battery-powered vehicles—rely on more electricity. Achieving net-zero emissions economy-wide will require negative emissions somewhere, most likely including in the electricity sector. 

Some assume that 100% renewable energy is a simple, complete, ‘plug-and-play’ solution. This would be appealing, if not for the fine print. Electricity is the largest and seems the easiest sector. But that doesn’t mean decarbonising electricity will be easy, cheap, and sustainably popular. Engineering complete decarbonisation of electricity systems within the next three decades is likely to become progressively harder. Hence it will be increasingly expensive, and risks becoming politically unpopular.

In this talk, Stephen Wilson will share some insights from recent studies and current research, explore with Australian examples some of the engineering-related challenges that will need to be solved, and note opportunities for Australian engineering to contribute at home and abroad.

Stephen Wilson is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Queensland who has worked at the intersection of engineering, economics and policy, energy security and the geopolitics of energy and resources across three decades and in over 30 countries. Stephen has worked on projects in energy efficiency and demand-side management, electricity regulation, tariffs and pricing, climate change and energy policy, natural gas, pipeline and storage infrastructure master plans, security of supply and bankability studies, coal and uranium mining, renewable energy and system modelling. Originally trained as a mechanical engineer, Stephen has spent his career in energy economics, as a consultant based in Melbourne, Hong Kong and later London, as general manager of market and industry analysis in the energy product group of a global mining company, and as a full-time teaching and research Professor at UQ. Stephen is Managing Director of Cape Otway Associates.

“New frontiers in smart sensor technology for a healthier, safer and sustainable future”

Professor Benjamin Eggleton FRSN FAA FTSE FOSA FIEEE FSPIE
Director, University of Sydney Nano Institute and Co-Director, NSW Smart Sensing Network

Date: Wednesday, 6 April 2022, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: To be advised 
Entry: No charge
All are welcome

Summary:  Sensor devices that detect events or changes in their environment are used in everyday objects such as smartphones and ubiquitous applications of which most people are never aware. Recent advances in device physics, nanotechnology, AI, and sensor fusion are leading to a revolution in smart sensor technology that will provide multi-faceted interfaces to the three-dimensional physical, chemical, and data environment, enabling high-performance information gathering and real-time situational awareness. My talk overviews recent examples from industry and end-user sponsored projects, including research from the NSW Smart Sensing Network where we are exploring how smart sensors can forecast air pollution and urban heat, reduce the maintenance costs associated with leaks and breaks of water pipes, and remotely monitor soil moisture; from Sydney Nano we will see how single-molecule sensing and wearables are providing for the rapid testing of infectious disease, underpinning a robust roadmap to COVID-19 recovery and beyond; and finally from the Jericho Smart Sensing sponsored by the Royal Australian Air Force, how smart sensors are providing the Air Force with enhanced, advanced situational awareness that enables smart, timely decision-making.

Ben Eggleton is a Professor of Physics at the University of Sydney, Director of the University of Sydney Nano Institute (Sydney Nano), and co-Director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network. He has received $60 million in research funding, was an ARC Laureate Fellow, and was founding director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Ultrahigh Bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS). His ground-breaking research in photonics underpins novel applications in telecommunications, quantum technologies, and smart sensors. He has published over 500 journal papers cited over 40,000 times with an h-number of 110 (Google Scholar). Eggleton is a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science and the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the OSA, the SPIE, the IEEE, and the Royal Society of NSW.

“Making a living on the plains — Stone tools and archaeology of Aboriginal societies”

Dr Colin Pardoe FRSN MAIATSIS

Biological Anthropologist and Archaeologist

Date: Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 12.00 pm AEST 
Venue:  Wal Fife Lecture Theatre (Building 14, Room 2),
Charles Sturt University (Wagga Wagga Campus) and live streaming
Entry: No charge
All are welcome

Summary:  Stone tools are more durable than the string, wood and other perishables that would be used every day. Some, like the Bogan Pick, are enigmatic items whose use is unclear to us today. Others, like the stone axe or hatchet heads, are more familiar. These items tell us about local environments, trade and how one made a living over the thousands of years when people adapted to their world from Ice Age to Inter-Glacial; when the desert encroached further east and Willandra Creek flowed to Lake Mungo, to the last ten thousand years when the modern rivers set their courses. In this talk, Colin Pardoe will discuss the variety of tools used to make a living and the attachment people have to items with lifespans covering perhaps thousands of years. Examples will be drawn from across the Murray Darling Basin – Wiradjuri, Barapa, Barkandji and many others who have shared their interest and knowledge.

About the speaker: Colin Pardoe is a biological anthropologist and archaeologist, although mainly the latter nowadays. He studies the links between people from the biology of bones and the culture of trade in ground-stone tools. He spends most of his time on the archaeology of the Murray – Darling Basin. Since retiring from commercial archaeology Colin helps with ‘Archaeology in the service of Conservation’. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, has a love and friendship affiliation with the Department of Archaeology and Natural History at the Australian National University, and is a life member of the Australian Archaeological Association and of the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists. A number of his papers are available at https://anu-au.academia.edu/ColinPardoe 

“Federalism, borders, and National Cabinet — What has the pandemic taught us?”

Professor Anne Twomey AO

Professor of Constitutional Law
Sydney Law School, University of Sydney

Date: Wednesday, 1 June 2022, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: To be advised.
Entry: To be advised
All are welcome

Summary:  Professor Twomey will discuss who is responsible for matters such as State border closures, quarantine and vaccine mandates, and what the Constitution has to say about it. The operation of a federal system in a national crisis, such as a pandemic, can cause confusion, but also reap benefits. The National Cabinet was supposed to provide national coordination while still allowing each State to deal with the different circumstances it faced. Has it succeeded, or is it just a mechanism for spreading a cloak of secrecy over government operations?

Anne Twomey is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Sydney. She has previously worked for the High Court, the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, and the Cabinet Office of New South Wales. She has had practical experience in the operation of federalism, when working for the NSW Government, and has written extensively on federalism in the academic sphere.

“This is going to be different: Learning to live with Chinese Power”

Professor Hugh White AO FASSA

Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies, Australian National University

Date: Wednesday, 6 July 2022, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: Zoom Webinar.  Click here for help with getting started with Zoom. 
Entry: No Charge
All are welcome

Summary:  China's rise drives the most consequential shift in Australia's international environment since European settlement. So far we are in denial about this, hoping that a reassertion of American supremacy will contain China's power and preserve the old US-led regional order which has served us so well. But what are the chances of those hopes being realised, and what can we do if they are dashed? How does Australia make its way in an Asia no longer dominated by our Great and Powerful Friends? How we answer that question will do much to define us as a nation.

Professor Hugh White AO FASSA is Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University in Canberra. He spent much of his career in the Australian Government, including as International Relations Advisor to Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Deputy Secretary for Strategy in the Department of Defence. He was the founding Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and from 2004 to 2011 he was Head of ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. His major publications include Power Shift: Australia’s future between Washington and Beijing, [2010], The China Choice: Why America should share power, [2012], Without America: Australia’s future in the New Asia [2017], and How to defend Australia [2019]. In the 1970s he studied philosophy at the universities of Melbourne and Oxford.

“Is Fairweather an Australian artist? And does it matter?”


Claire Roberts FAHA (1)

     in conversation with

Nicholas Jose (2)

(1) Associate Professor of Art History, University of Melbourne

(2) Novelist and Emeritus Professor, University of Adelaide

Date: Wednesday, 7 September 2022, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: Zoom Webinar.  Click here for help with getting started with Zoom. 
Entry: No Charge
All are welcome

Photo credit: Zöe Harrison

Summary: After a life of wandering, including extended periods living in China, Bali and the Philippines, the Scottish-born artist Ian Fairweather (1891-1974) settled on Bribie Island off the coast of Queensland. Working in a self-made house constructed from bush materials Fairweather created works that prompted a leading Sydney critic to name him ‘our greatest painter’. In her new book Fairweather and China (2021) Claire Roberts seeks to reposition Fairweather as a key transcultural figure, connecting British, European, Chinese and Australian art histories.

Claire Roberts is an art historian and curator specialising in modern and contemporary Chinese art and cultural flows between Australia and Asia. She is Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Claire received her PhD from the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University (2006). Her most recent books are Fairweather and China (2021); Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters (edited with John Thompson, 2019) Photography and China (2013) and Friendship in Art: Fou Lei and Huang Binhong (2010).

Nicholas Jose has published novels, short stories, essays and non-fiction and was general editor of the Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature. He recently co-edited Antipodean China: Reflections on Literary Exchange (2021) and Everything Changes: Australian Writers and China—A transcultural anthology (2020). He was Cultural Counsellor at the Australian Embassy Beijing, 1987-1990 and Harvard Chair of Australian Studies, 2009-10. He is currently Emeritus Professor of English and Creative Writing at The University of Adelaide and Adjunct Professor, Writing and Society Research Centre, Western Sydney University.

Events Calendar for the Royal Society of NSW in 2022.

Please check this page regularly since the program is under ongoing development and may be affected by the prevalence of COVID-19 during early 2022.

Last update: 21 January 2022

Follow the links below for meetings held by the Society in Sydney, in Newcastle by the Hunter Branch, in Mittagong by the Southern Highlands Branch, and in western NSW by the Western NSW Branch.

• Sydney Meetings
• Hunter Branch Meetings
• Southern Highlands Branch Meetings
• Western NSW Branch Meetings

Sydney Meetings 2022

Please note that the program in the table below lists events that are scheduled as monthly Ordinary General Meetings and the Annual Forum of the Royal Society and Learned Academies. In addition to these events, there are additional named lectures, associated with the Society’s Awards that remain to be scheduled:

• Clarke Memorial Lecture — for 2020 (delayed) and 2021
• Liversidge Lecture — 2020 (delayed)
• Poggendorff Lecture — 2020 (delayed) and 2021
• Pollock Memorial Lecture  — 2021

together with lectures in the [email protected] series.

Return to the top of page

Hunter Branch Meetings

The Hunter Branch Event Program for 2022 is still under development.

Return to the top of page

Southern Highlands Branch Meetings

The Southern Highlands Branch Event Program for 2022 is still under development.

Return to the top of page

Western NSW Branch Meetings

The Western NSW Branch Event Program for 2022 is still under development

Return to the top of page

Jean Garling Room
Mitchell Building, State Library of NSW
1 Shakespeare Place, Sydney

EXHIBITION NOW OPEN

Opening Hours: Monday 2-5 pm; Thursday 3-6 pm; Sunday 2-5 pm until 31 March 2022, with a break from 21 December 2021 to 9 January 2022 over the holiday period.

About the Exhibition: This Exhibition begins a year of celebrations to mark the Society’s contributions to the intellectual life of NSW over 200 years. It is the perfect moment to reinforce our commitment to enriching lives through knowledge and inquiry. As we think about our future, we are informed by our history.

NEXUS has two meanings: a central or focal point; and a connection or series of connections linking two or more things. From the beginning, the Society has epitomised both meanings, as a forum for ideas and discovery, exposing us to the latest research and promoting awareness of some of the major issues confronting humanity. With 200 years of history, the exhibition can only showcase a fraction of the Society’s archives and achievements in telling the story of its Origins, Ideas, Advances, and Impacts.

Highlights of the exhibition include: 

• Letters from Professor Sir T W Edgeworth David, Antarctic explorer, on sun thaw line observations and arranging a presentation on the British Antarctic Expedition (1907 – 1909) led by Sir Ernest Shackleton
• Two original letters, including one with box-kite illustrations, of Lawrence Hargrave, a noted aviation pioneer and the first in Australia to fly (attached to four box kites of his own design), who published 23 papers on aeronautics in the Society’s Journal & Proceedings.

“Managing psychological distress in times of stress: the stress of COVID-19 and all that”

Professor Richard Bryant AC FASSA FAA FAHMS
Scientia Professor of Psychology &
Director, Traumatic Stress Clinic
UNSW (Sydney)

Date: Wednesday, 1 December 2021, 6.30 pm AEDT 
Venue: Zoom Webinar
Video Presentation: YouTube video
All are welcome

 Summary: Australia has a long tradition of dealing with environmental challenges, including seasonal impacts of bushfires, floods, drought, and severe storms. These events can result in marked deterioration in the mental health of Australians. This pattern has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen a significant increase in mental health problems across the nation. This has sparked calls both in Australia and globally for novel approaches to manage mental health problems in the wake of these mass events.

This review will describe a body of work that has mapped many of the key mechanisms that promote better mental health after adversity. It will also describe work that has harnessed this evidence to develop brief mental health programs that can be readily disseminated to people in times of need. Controlled trials will be reported that have evaluated the extent to which these programs can improve mental health, and how this approach points to a re-think of how mental health is managed by governments.

Richard Bryant is a Scientia Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Professor Bryant’s research has focused on the nature and treatment of stress reactions. He has identified key genetic, neural, and psychological factors underpinning stress reactions and strategies to manage them. His assessment and treatment protocols have been translated into over 15 languages and used in many countries. Professor Bryant has written 6 books, 75 book chapters, and 670 journal articles. He has worked with the World Health Organization to develop programs to manage stress reactions and has adapted these to manage mental health problems during the pandemic. This program has been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and anxiety, and is being evaluated across Australia, Europe, and India.

AIP Postgraduate Awards 2021

Jointly sponsored by the:

Australian Institute of Physics,
Royal Society of NSW, and
Royal Australian Chemical Institute

Date: Tuesday, 9 November 2021, 2.00 pm AEDT 
Venue: Zoom Webinar
Entry: No charge
All are welcome. 

Summary: The NSW Branch of the Australian Institute of Physics will hold its Annual Postgraduate Awards event on Tuesday, 9 November 2021 by Zoom from 2:00 pm.

Each University in NSW and the ACT has invited a postgraduate physics nominee to compete for the AIP NSW Postgraduate Medal and the RSNSW Jak Kelly Prize.

These awards have been created to encourage excellence in physics postgraduate work, and all nominees who participate in the Postgraduate Awards Day will receive a special award recognising the nominee’s high standing.

Students will make a 15-minute online presentation on their postgraduate research in Physics, and the presentation will be judged on the criteria (1) content and scientific quality, (2) clarity and (3) presentation skills as included in the judges’ criteria.

For further information, including the list of postgraduate presenters for the afternoon, please access the program schedule from the AIP NSW Branch website.

POWER AND PERIL OF THE DIGITAL AGE

Dates: Thursday and Friday, 4–5 November 2021, 9.00 am–12.30 pm AEDT
Venue: Live streaming and subsequently on YouTube
Cost: No charge.
Registration: Please register now through the Public Sector Network portal.
Brochure: The brochure is available in two forms:
(a) an abridged document (pdf: 5.8 MB) providing just the program, and
(b) a complete document (pdf: 6.2 MB) providing the program, abstracts, and speaker biographies.

The Royal Society of New South Wales and the Learned Academies acknowledge the generous support of Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC QC, Governor of New South Wales, the Office of the NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, and the NSW Smart Sensing Network.

Register now

Summary

We are at a moment in time when we must acknowledge and address the inexorably rising tide of data use and digital services. History will categorise the early decades of the 21st Century as the digital age, the age of prodigious development and use of digital technologies that enable us to transfer and access information easily and swiftly.

So much so that digital interaction is a defining characteristic of modern human life. Societies, economies, and political processes are infused and connected by the ubiquitous use of smart machines and software that process and communicate information to us in ways that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.The pace of digitisation was already fast by the end of 2019 before COVID-19 emerged.

The pandemic broke through cultural barriers and enabled implementation of digital strategies in a matter of days or weeks rather than years. Digital technologies and supercomputer simulation are central to dealing with the pandemic itself, as well as being the primary driver of productivity in almost every other aspect of society.

Almost all companies, governments, and organisations across the world are increasingly taking advantage of the benefits associated with data analytics and simulation, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things to solve problems never solved before, to undertake projects in five days that would have taken five years.

Problems such as those embodied in the United Nations General Assembly’s Sustainable Development Goals and their achievement by 2030. Tangible benefits include greater social connectivity, learning opportunities, information access and usage, versatile working and transport, and greater access to entertainment, news forms of banking and finance.

Unlocking the power of the digital age also brings peril, associated with concerns about data security, state-based and transnational crime, and terrorism, complexity, privacy, social disconnection, media manipulation, manipulation of the truth, communities left behind, national defence, and market vulnerabilities, outstripping rule-making and regulatory structures.

This year, the Royal Society of NSW in partnership with the Learned Academies - Health and Medicine, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, and Technology and Engineering, has chosen “Power and Peril of the Digital Age” as the theme for their annual Forum.

Our goal is to have a grown-up conversation about digitisation and the use of data. It will be framed around the future life of a child born on the first day of the Forum, 4 November 2021. This child will be born into a world of increasingly complex digital systems that hold great value and vulnerability.

Starting with a technological framing, the Forum will explore several major aspects which will impact the journey of that child as we approach 2030 and beyond. We will explore aspects of technology, health, defence, and security in a digital age, and the changing nature of industry as the world and society evolves.

Finally, our annual Forum will be a call to arms for the host Societies to focus on challenges identified during the two days that must be addressed for Australia to remain a prosperous, successful, and safe democracy in the digital world.

Program: Day 1 (Thursday, 4 November, 9.00 am – 12.30 pm)

Program: Day 2 (Friday, 5 November, 9.00 am – 12.30 pm)

“With the Falling of the Dusk”

Professor Stan Grant

Vice Chancellor's Chair of
Australian-Indigenous Belonging
Charles Sturt University

Date: Tuesday, 19 October 2021, 1.00 pm AEDT 
Venue:  Zoom Webinar
Video Presentation: YouTube video
All are welcome

This meeting is presented jointly by Charles Sturt University and the Royal Society of NSW.

Summary:  The world is at a critical inflection point with rising authoritarianism and waning democracy. The world’s superpower, the United States, is waning and being challenged by a rising power, China. Not since the lead up to World War One have we seen such a fundamental shift in the global order. After two decades of terrorism, war, economic collapse, and now a devastating global pandemic what is to become of us? Renowned, award-winning journalist and Charles Sturt University Chair of Indigenous/Australian Belonging takes us on a journey through a world of change calling on three decades of front line reporting in Australia and around the globe. Stan explores questions of history and identity and argues the west may need to give up power to keep it.

About the speaker: Professor Stan Grant holds the CSU Vice-Chancellor's Chair of Australian-Indigenous Belonging at Charles Sturt University. He is is a highly respected and awarded journalist with a 30-year career that includes experience in radio, television news and current affairs with the ABC, SBS, and CNN.

Formerly, he was the ABC's Global Affairs and Indigenous Affairs Analyst. Stan Grant has been awarded three Walkley awards, two Peabody awards, four Asia TV awards, an Australian TV Logie award, an International Indigenous Trailblazer Award, two Australian Academy of Cinema Television awards, an Australian Heritage Literature award and an Association of International Sports Journalists award, among many others. He has also published four critically acclaimed and best-selling books on identity and Australian Indigenous history, and in 2019 wrote, and featured in, the full-length documentary film, The Australian Dream, which won the AACTA Award for best feature documentary in 2019.

“Privacy and Identity in an
AI world”

Professor Toby Walsh FAA FACM FAAAS

Scientia Professor of AI
School of CSE, UNSW (Sydney)

Date: Wednesday, 6 October 2021, 6.30 pm AEDT 
Venue: Zoom Webinar
Video presentation: YouTube video
All are welcome. 

 Summary: Artificial Intelligence is making great advances, many of which challenge our notions of privacy and identity. From face recognition to automated decision making, what are the most pressing problems and how should we navigate this future to ensure a prosperous, just, and sustainable society?

Professor Toby Walsh is a Laureate Fellow and Scientia Professor of AI at the University of New South Wales and Data61, and an adjunct professor at QUT. He was named by the Australian newspaper as one of the "rock stars" of Australia's digital revolution. He is a Fellow of the Australia Academy of Science and recipient of the NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT. He appears regularly on TV and radio and has authored two books on AI for a general audience, the most recent entitled "2062: The World that AI Made".

Our Energy Future:

The Unrecognised Opportunity in Glasgow — In Two Acts

Part 2: Crushed Rocks

Dr Saul Griffith FRSN

including a conversation with

Dr Adi Paterson FRSN

Date: 12.30 pm AEST, Wednesday 15 September 2021 (Part 2)
Venue: Zoom webinar
Video presentation: YouTube videos for Part 1 and Part 2
Society Members and Fellows, and members of the public are welcome

This year, from 1–12 November 2021, Glasgow, Scotland will host the 26^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Glasgow” is the current shorthand for this meeting — which may etch it into our consciousness for a generation as Rio de Janiero did in 1992 with the Rio 21 Principles.

Saul Griffith presents a future for our energy system and economy in the context of Glasgow. For Australia, understanding what we know (and why) about our energy economy allows us to think deeply about reimagining an energy economy without carbon dioxide and other emissions. The two sessions explore the Australian energy economy: domestic — “Our Castles” and global — “Our Crushed Rocks”. Using a new analysis of our emissions data and a cross-sectoral analysis, he will contextualise our machines (hardware in the economy) and climate targets (1.5 degrees, with and without negative emissions) to show why we now need nearly perfect execution of new solutions.

Part 1: Context and Castles — 25 August 2021

Part 1 was presented on 25 August and in the event that you missed the presentation it is now available on our YouTube channel.  

Part 2: Crushed Rocks — 15 September 2021

The second session will start with responses to questions and comments from the first session, and will allow people who did not see session 1 to get the background that will give context to the second talk.

Questions may be submitted by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. up until the close of business on Thursday, 9 September 2021.

The Talk: Saul Griffith

Given we can win the battle for our Castles in the domestic economy (Part 1), what about the export economy, given the fear of lost rural and regional jobs and export value that has traditionally driven Australian climate politics? This discussion has to deal with our hydrogen demons and global trade and economic security. It needs a very honest look at our primary exports in the context of a carbon-constrained world. Is Australia’s enormous opportunity (still) in metals? If it is, the processes need to be electrified, and we need to produce primary metals and not just ores. There is also an agricultural opportunity.

The Conversation: Saul Griffith and Adi Paterson

Saul and Adi will explore the export economy and the technologies that we don’t yet have, but which are predictably going to exist, to decarbonise the “hard to decarbonise” sectors such as steel, aluminium, cement, agriculture, forestry, paper, and pulp.

The Wrap

Saul Griffith will provide recommendations for what Australia could advance at the COP in Glasgow — if we aspire to be a country that wants to win the carbon Olympics as badly as we wanted to win at the Tokyo Olympics.

About the Speakers

Dr Saul Griffith

Saul Griffith PhD (MIT) ME (Syd) BMetEng (UNSW) is an engineer and energy entrepreneur.  Saul has been a recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship, MIT TR35, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Tallberg Foundation Global Leadership Award, and Lemelson MIT Inventor Award. He has founded multiple technology companies including www.otherlab.com, www.instructables.com (sold to Autodesk), www.makanipower.com (sold to Google), www.sunfolding.com, www.gradientcomfort.com, www.voluteinc.com (sold to Linamar/McLaren), www.roamrobotics.com, and www.canvas.build.  Saul has been principal investigator on government research contracts from NASA, DOE, ARPA-e, DARPA, NSF, NIH, SOCOM, ONR and others and has converted many of the resulting technologies into valuable businesses.  He has studied national and global energy systems in detail, including www.energyliteracy.com, an unprecedented look into the details of energy flows and dependencies.  Saul is the co-founder of RewiringAmerica.org, an advocacy group for rapid electrification of the US economy as a climate solution commensurate with UN 1.5 degree goals. Through Otherlab, Saul works with top tier universities, government research agencies, and Fortune 1000 businesses, but retains his independence as a private R&D enterprise.

Dr Adi Paterson

Dr Adi Paterson has wide-ranging experience in energy policy, systems, technology, and innovation. He has had policy and management experience related to nuclear energy, hydrogen as an energy vector, energy in development settings, and battery innovation and industry potential. His current focus: energy sovereignty, security and low carbon energy options for established economies and the developing world, based on environmental sustainability to 2121. During his tenure as CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Australia joined the Generation-IV International Forum — a treaty-level nuclear organisation developing nuclear reactor designs to be available from 2035. Prior to joining ANSTO he was Chief Operating Officer of the Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Company in South Africa, including responsibility for international outreach (primarily in the USA and Canada).

In the 1990s he led the Materials and Energy Division at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa, including the development of high-temperature battery systems and licensing of IP for lithium batteries. He is the Principal and Founder of Siyeva Consulting. He was recognised as Professional Engineer of the Year (Sydney Division) in 2012 and is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wollongong.

Date: Tuesday, 14 September 2021, 2.00 pm AEST 
Venue: Zoom webinar.  For assistance in getting started with Zoom, please click here.
Enquiries: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Entry: No charge
All Society members are invited to join this historic occasion. 

The Council has resolved to establish a new branch of the Society in Western NSW covering a wide area including the towns of Wagga Wagga, Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo. The new Branch is being established with the support of Charles Sturt University. In accordance with the Rules the Council is convening a meeting to inaugurate the Branch and establish the first Branch Committee. The President, Dr Susan Pond AM FRSN will give a presentation about the Society in Western New South Wales. The agenda for the meeting is below.

The agenda for the meeting is now available online.

“Taking humour and laughter seriously: Exploring the multi-disciplinary field of humour studies”

Dr Jessica Milner Davis FRSN

Honorary Associate, University of Sydney

Date: Wednesday, 1 September 2021, 6.30 pm AEST 
Venue: Zoom webinar.  For assistance in getting started with Zoom, please click here.
Video Presentation: YouTube video 
All are welcome. 

Summary: From the time of Aristotle and Plato, philosophers have speculated about humour and laughter, proposing that ridere est humanum. But we now know that chimpanzees and rats also laugh. Sociologist Norbert Elias believed that laughter evolved as an antidote to aggression; but humour can also be damaging. This lecture explores the question of whether humour unites or divides the human race. Studies in neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, literature, performance, history, sociology, religion, health, and the emotions all now contribute to our understanding of the functions and consequences of humour. We honour its creators and practitioners, but we still can‘t define it.

Jessica Milner Davis PhD FRSN is a research associate at the University of Sydney and at Brunel University London’s Centre for Comedy Studies Research. A life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, she has held fellowships and lectured at the Universities of Cambridge, Bologna, Bristol, and NSW, as well as Stanford, Hofstra, and the Jagellonian University. A past president of the International Society for Humor Studies (ISHS), she founded and continues to co-ordinate the Australasian Humour Studies Network (AHSN: https://ahsnhumourstudies.org/). In 2018 she received the ISHS Lifetime Achievement Award for her interdisciplinary research and publications on humour, comedy, and laughter.

Our Energy Future:

The Unrecognised Opportunity in Glasgow — In Two Acts

Part 1: Context and Castles

Part 2: Crushed Rocks

Dr Saul Griffith FRSN

including a conversation with

Dr Adi Paterson FRSN

Date: 12.30 pm AEST, Wed. 25 August 2021 
Venue: Zoom webinars
Video presentation: YouTube videos for Part 1 and Part 2
Society Members and Fellows, and members of the public are welcome

This year, from 1–12 November 2021, Glasgow, Scotland will host the 26^th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. “Glasgow” is the current shorthand for this meeting — which may etch it into our consciousness for a generation as Rio de Janiero did in 1992 with the Rio 21 Principles.

Saul Griffith presents a future for our energy system and economy in the context of Glasgow. For Australia, understanding what we know (and why) about our energy economy allows us to think deeply about reimagining an energy economy without carbon dioxide and other emissions. The two sessions explore the Australian energy economy: domestic — “Our Castles” and global — “Our Crushed Rocks”. Using a new analysis of our emissions data and a cross-sectoral analysis, he will contextualise our machines (hardware in the economy) and climate targets (1.5 degrees, with and without negative emissions) to show why we now need nearly perfect execution of new solutions.

Part 1: Context and Castles — 25 August 2021

The Talk: Saul Griffith

Households as a political and economic unit are a natural focal point for climate policy. To win, we must transform household economics by “Electrifying Everything”. This includes near-term cost trends, a new study on Australian household economics, and why our electric vehicle (EV) policies and gas recovery policies are not commensurate with our goals.

The Conversation: Saul Griffith and Adi Paterson

The conversation will explore themes and outcomes from the research and the new opportunities and challenges of “Electrifying Everything”.

Part 2: Crushed Rocks — 15 September 2021

The second session will start with responses to questions and comments from the first session, and will allow people who did not see session 1 to get the background that will give context to the second talk.

Questions may be submitted by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. up until the close of business on Thursday, 9 September 2021.

The Talk: Saul Griffith

Given we can win the battle for our Castles in the domestic economy (Part 1), what about the export economy, given the fear of lost rural and regional jobs and export value that has traditionally driven Australian climate politics? This discussion has to deal with our hydrogen demons and global trade and economic security. It needs a very honest look at our primary exports in the context of a carbon-constrained world. Is Australia’s enormous opportunity (still) in metals? If it is, the processes need to be electrified, and we need to produce primary metals and not just ores. There is also an agricultural opportunity.

The Conversation: Saul Griffith and Adi Paterson

Saul and Adi will explore the export economy and the technologies that we don’t yet have, but which are predictably going to exist, to decarbonise the “hard to decarbonise” sectors such as steel, aluminium, cement, agriculture, forestry, paper, and pulp.

The Wrap

Saul Griffith will provide recommendations for what Australia could advance at the COP in Glasgow — if we aspire to be a country that wants to win the carbon Olympics as badly as we wanted to win at the Tokyo Olympics.

About the Speakers

Dr Saul Griffith

Saul Griffith PhD (MIT) ME (Syd) BMetEng (UNSW) is an engineer and energy entrepreneur.  Saul has been a recipient of the Macarthur Fellowship, MIT TR35, World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, Tallberg Foundation Global Leadership Award, and Lemelson MIT Inventor Award. He has founded multiple technology companies including www.otherlab.com, www.instructables.com (sold to Autodesk), www.makanipower.com (sold to Google), www.sunfolding.com, www.gradientcomfort.com, www.voluteinc.com (sold to Linamar/McLaren), www.roamrobotics.com, and www.canvas.build.  Saul has been principal investigator on government research contracts from NASA, DOE, ARPA-e, DARPA, NSF, NIH, SOCOM, ONR and others and has converted many of the resulting technologies into valuable businesses.  He has studied national and global energy systems in detail, including www.energyliteracy.com, an unprecedented look into the details of energy flows and dependencies.  Saul is the co-founder of RewiringAmerica.org, an advocacy group for rapid electrification of the US economy as a climate solution commensurate with UN 1.5 degree goals. Through Otherlab, Saul works with top tier universities, government research agencies, and Fortune 1000 businesses, but retains his independence as a private R&D enterprise.

Dr Adi Paterson

Dr Adi Paterson has wide-ranging experience in energy policy, systems, technology, and innovation. He has had policy and management experience related to nuclear energy, hydrogen as an energy vector, energy in development settings, and battery innovation and industry potential. His current focus: energy sovereignty, security and low carbon energy options for established economies and the developing world, based on environmental sustainability to 2121. During his tenure as CEO of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Australia joined the Generation-IV International Forum — a treaty-level nuclear organisation developing nuclear reactor designs to be available from 2035. Prior to joining ANSTO he was Chief Operating Officer of the Pebble-Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) Company in South Africa, including responsibility for international outreach (primarily in the USA and Canada).

In the 1990s he led the Materials and Energy Division at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa, including the development of high-temperature battery systems and licensing of IP for lithium batteries. He is the Principal and Founder of Siyeva Consulting. He was recognised as Professional Engineer of the Year (Sydney Division) in 2012 and is an Honorary Fellow of Engineers Australia. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wollongong.

“Did the Aged Care Royal Commission provide a blueprint to fix Australia's aged care system? If not, what else needs to happen?”

Professor Kathy Eagar
Director, Australian Health Services Research Institute
University of Wollongong

Date: Wednesday, 25 August 2021, 6.00 pm AEST 
Venue:  Zoom Webinar
Video Presentation: YouTube video
Society Members, Fellow, and members of the public are welcome

Summary:  As our population shrinks and ages, the provision of a safe effective system of aged care is an immediate priority for both our Government and our society. The need for reform within the sector has clearly been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 pandemic as well as The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety's final report. The latter laid out an extensive plan to overhaul Australia's aged care sector outlining 148 recommendations for improvement. The report calls for a new system underpinned by a rights-based Act, a funding model based on need, and much stronger regulation and transparency. The problems facing the aged care sector are only going to increase in intensity in the future. So what needs to be done?

About the speaker: Professor Kathy Eagar is Professor of Health Sciences Research and Director of the Australian Health Services Research Institute (AHSRI) at the University of Wollongong.  

Our speaker, Professor Eagar will be accompanied by a panel of two: Dr Max Thorpe, a clinician, and Ms Marie Coleman AO, an Australian feminist, social activist, public servant and journalist.  Dr Thorpe understands the inadequacies in the Aged Care System through his involvement in the management of community-based aged care, and both he and Ms Coleman are strong advocates for the better management of aged care.