Update from ANSTO user office on COVID19 situation

The following email was circulated from the ANSTO user office, March 23 and contains the most up-to-date information available. As the situation is rapidly changing, please check regularly for updated information.

To all ANSTO users, visitors and colleagues,

ANSTO is making temporary changes to its staffing arrangements in line with government advice to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and support efforts to preserve ongoing essential and critical operations. While the OPAL reactor, key safety activities, nuclear medicine production and other critical and essential support activities will continue at the Lucas Heights and Clayton campus, all other staff have been asked to work from home from 23 March 2020. There have been no reported cases of COVID-19 amongst ANSTO staff, but given the escalating situation, we are moving now to reduce the chances of it coming onto our campuses. This means that all user programs in our research infrastructure platforms are suspended until further notice. This suspension will also impact commercial access and services. The only exception to this is support for critical investigations into COVID-19 virus. Thank you for your understanding and we look forward to reconnecting with you once circumstances allow and restarting our user programs. Updates, when available, will be sent to you from the User Office and questions you may have can also be directed there: Lucas Heights and Camperdown facilities contact user.office.nsw@ansto.gov.au ; Australian Synchrotron contact user.office.vic@ansto.gov.au

ANBUG Awardees 2019

ANBUG would like to congratulate the 2019 ANBUG award recipients on their exceptional achievements utilising neutron scattering. The following four awards were announced at the recent ANSTO User Meeting held at Macquarie University in December 2019 and the executive committee and entire ANBUG community would like to congratulate the awardees:

ANBUG Career Award for lifetime achievement – Prof. Stewart Campbell (UNSW Canberra)

Prof. Stewart Campbell delivering his Career Award Lecture at the AUM2019

ANBUG Neutron Award for achievements >10 years post-PhD – Prof. Vanessa Peterson (ANSTO)

Prof. Vanessa Peterson’s Neutron Award being announced by ANBUG president Prof. Tracy Rushmer at the AUM2019

ANBUG Young Scientist Award for achievements <10 years post-PhD – Assoc. Prof. Rico Tabor (Monash University)

Assoc. Prof. Rico Tabor’s ANBUG Young Scientist Award being announced by ANBUG President Prof. Tracy Rushmer at the AUM2019

ANBUG Outstanding PhD Award for the best PhD thesis submitted to the judging panel from an Australian or New Zealand university – Dr Timothy Murdoch (PhD conferred from Newcastle University)

Dr Timothy Murdoch performing neutron reflectometry experiments at the ILL, Grenoble

AUM2019

The website for the ANSTO User Meeting 2019 has gone live. The meeting will be held at Macquarie University on 2nd-3rd December 2019 and will bring together the users of ANSTO’s neutron, synchrotron and accelerator infrastructure. Follow announcements relating to the meeting at the meeting website and under the AUM2019 tab above.

AINSE ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium 2018

The AINSE-ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium for 2018 was held on the 19-21 November at the AINSE theatre. A hundred delegates from 54 institutions travelled to Sydney from across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Japan and Sweden.  A full set of statistics about the conference and diversity can be found here.  The ANBUG executive wishes to thank all of the delegates and the organising committee led by Gail Iles (RMIT) for an enjoyable and successful meeting. We look forward to seeing many of you again at the joint ANBUG-ANSTO user meeting later in 2019. 

 

Congratulations to the following PhD students who received prizes:

Best PhD Thesis – Grace Causer (University of Wollongong)

Best Oral Presentation (1st Place) – Isaac Graham (University of New South Wales)

Best Oral Presentation (2nd Place) – Katherine Chea (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology)

Best Oral Presentation (3rd Place) – Tara Brown (University of Wollongong)

Best Poster Presentation (1st Place) – Mostafa Masud  (University of Queensland)

Best Poster Presentation (2nd Place) – Nur Mod Darbi  (University of Auckland)

Best Poster Presentation (3rd Place) – Joseph Vella  (University of Auckland)

 

 

 

 

Applications for PhD thesis prize

A prize for an outstanding PhD thesis using neutron scattering techniques will be awarded at the 2018 AINSE/ANBUG Neutron Scattering Symposium. The prize will consist of $500 towards travel to a conference of the recipient’s choosing, refunded on submission of receipts.  The prize is sponsored by the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, ANSTO.

To apply please use the form available here. Deadline for applications is 2/11/2018.

Abstract submission now open for AANNS2018

The 2018 ANBUG-AINSE Neutron Scattering Symposium will be held on 19th – 21stNov 2018 at the AINSE conference centre, Lucas Heights, New South Wales, at the site of the ANSTO-operated OPAL research reactor near Sydney. The symposium is the biennial meeting of the neutron scattering community in Australia and New Zealand, and also welcomes the many international users of the Australian OPAL research reactor.

Abstracts can now be submitted at the conference webpage. Abstract submission will close 23 September.

 

ANBUG executive committee renewal

The ANBUG executive committee is due for renewal at the end of 2018, and we are looking for members who are interested in being part of the committee.

In 2019, Tracy Rushmer will become ANBUG president.  Our current president, Ian Gentle, will remain on the committee for a further two years as immediate past president.  We need to develop a slate of candidates for six other executive committee members.  One of the vacant positions is the office of vice president, who will become president in 2021.  Current executive committee members may also stand for re-election.

Once we have candidates, elections will be held and the new committee announced at our annual symposium AANSS, 19-21 November 2018.

If you are interested in becoming an ANBUG executive committee member, please email Katy Wood (kwo@ansto.gov.au) or Ian Gentle (i.gentle@uq.edu.au).  You should say whether you are interested in becoming vice president or one of the other members and send a short paragraph about yourself which will be circulated to members on voting.

Any questions please contact any of the ANBUG executive committee.