Royal Society of NSW News & Events

Presentations by Royal Society of NSW scholarship winners 2014 Date: Wednesday 5 February 2014 Venue: Union University and Schools Club, 25 Bent St, Sydney John Chan (Pharmacology, University of Sydney) Jessica Stanley (Chemistry, University of Sydney) Jiangbo (Tim) Zhao (Advanced Cytometry, Macquarie University) This presentation was delivered by ...

"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...

Thursday, 19 February 2014"Searching for clues: Unmasking art fraud and fraudsters" - Associate Professor Robyn Sloggett At the first joint meeting of the Society and the Australian Academy of Forensics Sciences, Professor Robyn Sloggitt explain the approach taken by forensics scientists in investigating prosecuting cultural heritage offences. The ...

Thursday, 27 February 2014"Questions of power in NSW"Professor Mary O'Kane, NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer At the annual Four Societies Lecture, Professor Mary O'Kane considered the major questions that face NSW in the future of energy production and utilisation. Asking the right questions is key – it reduces the time taken to identify the best s...

Wednesday, 5 March 2014"Big data knowledge discovery: machine learning meets natural science"Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte FRS, CEO, National ICT Australia Hugh Durrant-Whyte is an internationally-recognised expert on the analysis of "big data" – the mass of information that is being generated around current information and communication technologie...

Wednesday, 2 April 2014"The Jameson cell"Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson AO At the 1220th ordinary general meeting of the Society, Laureate Professor Graeme Jameson described the development of the Jameson cell, one of the most important technological contributions to the Australian economy in the last 50 years. The Jameson cell is a flotation ce...

Wednesday, 4 June 2014"What lessons have we learnt from the Global Financial Crisis?"Professor Robert Marks In 2008, the world suffered "the equivalent of cardiac arrest", according to the Financial Times. It became virtually impossible for any institution to finance itself, (that is, borrow in the markets) longer than overnight. With the collapse ...

"What causes MS? The impact of the genetic revolution"Professor Graeme Stewart AMWednesday, 2 July 2014 Professor Graeme Stewart AM, director of clinical immunology at Westmead Hospital, has researched the genetic influences on disease, in particular on multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is the commonest chronic neurological disorder of young at all. It u...

"Saving Australia through science education"Emeritus Scientia Professor Eugenie Lumbers AM DistFRSNWednesday, 6 August 2014 The world is experiencing an exponential rate of technological progress. Change was relatively gradual from the time and the domestication of the horse until the 17th century. Indeed, in the early stages the Industrial Revolut...

"The fourth dimension and beyond - the paradox of working in unimaginable worlds"Emeritus Scientia Professor Ian Sloan AO FRSNDate: Wednesday 3 September 2014 Professor Ian Sloan is not content to work in an environment of four dimensions – he is quite at home in space with many more dimensions than most of us are accustomed to. Many mathemati...

"Australia's most spectacular environmental rehabilitation project: Phillip Island, Pacific Ocean"Dr Peter CoynDate: Wednesday, 1 October 2014 Perched atop a submerged seamount, in turn atop a submarine ridge, Phillip Island and its close neighbour Norfolk Island are tiny specks, the only land in a vast expanse (2.5 million square kilometres) ...

"A drop of optics"Dr Steve Lee and Dr Tri Phan, joint winners of the 2014 ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of TechnologyDate: Wednesday 5 November 2014 The talk at the 1227th AGM was presented by Dr Steve Lee and Dr Tri Phan, joint winners of the 2014 ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology. They received the award for develop...

Back row: Benjamin Eggleton, Jerome Vanclay, Richard Banati, Ian Dawes, John Gascoigne. Front row: Aibing Yu, Ian Sloan, Judith Wheeldon, Donald Hector (President), Heinrich Hora, Merlin Crossley, Trevor Hambley

Left to right: Assoc Prof David Wilson, President Dr Donald Hector, Prof Brien Holden and Prof Michelle Simmons DistFRSN.

On Wednesday 7 May, the annual awards evening and annual dinner was held at the Union University and Schools Club in Sydney. The dinner was extremely well attended and the address by Professor Barry Jones AC FAA FACE FAHA FASSA FTSE DistFRSN on the attack on the scientific method stimulated a lot of discussion. During the evening, the Society's 201...

Prof Barry Jones AC DistFRSN delivers the second Royal Society of NSW Distinguished Fellow's Lecture.

The Society was proud to have Professor Barry Jones AC DistFRSN present the second annual Distinguished Fellow's Lecture at the Society's annual dinner on Wednesday 7 May 2014. Professor Jones is the only person to be a Fellow of all four of Australia's learned Academies.

2014 Jak Kelly Award presentation, followed by the Society’s Christmas Party Wednesday 3 December 2014 Union, University & Schools Club, 25 Bent St, Sydney The 2014 Royal Society of NSW Jak Kelly Award was presented to Ms Linh Tran of the School of Physics at University of Wollongong (here seen at the AIP Awards Day on 18 November), for her wor...