What's On at UWA

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features a recorded lecture "Fun To Imagine" by Richard Feynamn and Part 3 of "ATOM" by Jim Al-Khalili

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

This week PhD student Rahi Varsani will be presenting the Biophysics seminar.

Title: Time-evolution of chain formation in magnetic nanoparticles and its effects on transverse proton relaxation rates.

Abstract: In the 1970s, de Gennes and Pincus predicted that magnetic nanoparticles suspended in a fluid will form linear chains in the presence of an applied magnetic field. I have studied a system of magnetic nanoparticles and developed a technique that can measure relaxation rates and lock the particles in situ, allowing the structure of the nanoparticles to be correlated with changes in magnetic properties over time.

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features the famous cult-hit movie classic Donnie Darko by Richad Kelly.

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features the famous Bill Nye's "100 Greatest Discoveries" and Brian Cox's "A Night With The Stars"

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

As part of a tradition at the University Physics Screening, fortnightly screenings of various Science Fiction Movies, documentaries and famous recorded lectures will continue screening weekly all through this semester.

This week's screening features the sci-fi classic 'Alien'

FREE ENTRY, and drinks and snacks can be purchased at the door

Whilst trade and enterprise have led Australia's bilateral relations with China, education promotes mutual understanding and long lasting links. This year's forum will focus on developing Chinese language and cultural competency in schools, universities and industry. His Excellency Mr Chen Yuming, Chinese Ambassador to Australia, will provide the keynote address and a panel of business leaders and education representatives will share their experiences.

***NOW RESCHEDULED TO 18 OCTOBER***

“Individual(s) ….embrace a new paradigm for all sorts of reasons ... . Some of these … lie outside the sphere of science entirely. Others depend upon idiosyncrasies of autobiography….” (Kuhn, 1970, p.l52). I will highlight some “idiosyncrasies of autobiography” that have led to enjoying an academic life – the opportunity to research and teach, to construct and communicate knowledge. I plan to illustrate how psychometrics, a field in which I had the opportunity to ignore or embrace an emergent, non-standard statistical paradigm, has lead beyond mathematical modelling to areas such as the philosophy of science, the sociology of knowledge and academic controversy. I plan to also illustrate the challenges in negotiating the complex world of academic research and communication.

Controversy continues to surround national student assessment in Australia. However, I argue that testing is neither good nor bad: the devil lies in what people – teachers, school, systems and even parents – do about the tests and the data they generate. I report the experiences of principals, teachers and curriculum consultants in one educational authority to describe how responsibility for interrogating, interpreting and applying data has gradually shifted from an external top-down approach to an internal bottom-up model in a planned, sustained and centrally supported manner, during the past eight years.

Firms include:

Bain & Company, Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan, McKinsey & Company, Momentum Partners, Partners in Performance (PIP), Port Jackson Partners (PJP), and UBS.

Register on CareerHub - https://uwa.careerhub.com.au/ViewEvent.chpx?id=139097

Venue details will be sent through UWA CareerHub closer to the date, so ensure your CareerHub details are up to date.

Understanding the inner workings of our planet requires knowledge of material properties under extreme conditions. In the past two decades, synchrotronradiation and high-pressure instrumentations have opened a new window to the Earth's interior. Presented here are experimental results revealing pressure- and temperature-induced magnetic transitions in iron carbides and associated effects on their densities and sound velocities. The new data suggest that the inner core is potentially the largest reservoir of carbon in Earth and may play an unexpected role in the global carbon cycle.

INVITATION TO THE 2013 BIG MEET CAREERS FAIR

Every year Australia’s leading employers travel the country looking for high quality graduates and undergraduates. The Big Meet is your opportunity to meet up to 100 of these organisations in one day, in one location.

The Big Meet is the ultimate careers fair for undergraduates, graduates and postgraduates from all disciplines. Whether you're looking for graduate employment, a new job, vacation work, an international internship, a gap-year experience, voluntary work, travel, overseas opportunities, a teaching job or postgraduate education, The Big Meet can get you started. Don't miss out!

Entry is FREE, and you'll get some fantastic free stuff as well.

Register for the event via: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TheBigMeet2013Perth Further Information For more info, visit The Big Meet website www.thebigmeet.com.au

Confirmed Exhibitors To Date

ABB Australia, ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants), Accenture, ACS Foundation, Alcoa of Australia, Arup, Aurecon, Aurizon, AusAID, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Federal Police, Australian Institute of Personal Trainers, Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australian Taxation Office, Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD), Chevron, Clough Projects Pty Ltd, Crowe Horwath, Defence Force Recruiting, Deloitte, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), Department of Defence, Department of Education (WA), Department of Finance (WA), Department of Human Services, Department of Mines and Petroleum, Department of Regional Development and Lands, Department of State Development , Department of Treasury (WA), Department of Veterans' Affairs, Edmund Rice Camps WA, Fulton Hogan Pty Ltd, Fortescue Metals Group, GradConnection, Graduate Opportunities, Hatch, Hays Recruitment, IBM, Institute of Chartered Accountants, Intergen, KBR, Kiewit, KordaMentha, Lawler McGillivray, Leighton Contractors Pty Limited, Linfox Logistics, Main Roads WA, Mainfreight, Monadelphous Group Limited, Meltwater Group, National Australia Bank, Navitas Workforce Solutions, Newcrest Mining, NRW Civil & Mining, PPB Advisory, Public Transport Authority WA, Readygrad, Real Gap, Rio Tinto, Shell Australia, Sinclair Knight Merz, SThree, Subsea 7, Teach For Australia, Technip, The Ride to Conquer Cancer, The Tax Institute, Thiess, Water Corporation, Woodside.

As part of our continue tradition free screening, this week the University Physics Society will be screening one of the widely acclaimed recorded lectures by famous physicist Richard Feynmann. Entry is free and drinks and snacks will be available.

For more details email us at [email protected]

As part of our continue tradition free screening, this week the University Physics Society will be screening the film Memento, directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Guy Pierce, Carrie-Ann Moss and Joe Pantoliano. What this got to do with physics? Not much but we promise it will be good fun!

Entry is free and drinks and snacks will be available. For more details email us at [email protected]

Researchers from the Optical + Biomedical Engineering Laboratory (OBEL) share their research findings related to the use of light as a medical diagnostic tool at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery on Friday 12 April 2013.

OBEL is based within the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics - campus partner of the current exhibition LUMINOUSFLUX, which explores the ways in which local and international artists harness the magical palette of light.

For more info on this and similar events, visit the Public Program schedule of the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery http://www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au/publicprogram/

This presentation includes technical information on both ball bearing and magnetic bearing type turbo pump models. It compares the various roughing pump technologies and explains how to choose the best pumping system for your application with consideration to pumping speed, process requirements, process pressure and ultimate pressure. Lifetime cost, service and equipment care will also be taken into consideration.

The presentation takes about 45 minutes followed by an opportunity for questions and answers for about 15 minutes.

It is not purely a sales pitch but does contain some commercial information relating to Pfeiffer vacuum.

Quantum information theoretic tools could be used to study the most basic physical phenomena. For example, measurements of quantum entanglement allow one, in principle, to detect curvature. If curvature can be expressed completely in terms of entanglement, this opens up the prospect that quantum gravity could be simulated on a quantum computer. Mathematical side results yield surprising answers to questions of the type famously described by Kac's as "Can one hear the shape of a drum?"

Achim Kempf is a professor in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Waterloo (near Toronto) in Canada. He studied physics in Germany, at the Universities of Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Munich, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1993. From 1993 to 1998 he was a postdoc and a College Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He then spent three years as an IFT postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida until he joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo (UW) in 2001. He is an associate member of the Institute for Quantum Computing at UW and he is an affiliate member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Since 2004, he has held the Canada Research Chair for the Physics of Information.

Professor Kempf’s main research interest is the study of the interplay of information theory, quantum theory and general relativity. He showed that spacetime could be simultaneously continuous and discrete in the same way that information can be. His research interests also include inflationary cosmology as well as high temperature superconductors. He holds a patent related to data compression and has a patent on radar-related methods pending. He has also published in Mathematical Biology on the use of information theoretic methods in the study of the origin of life.

The two deepest theories of nature, quantum theory and general relativity, long considered esoteric, are nowadays at the heart of everyday life, for example in all sorts of electronics and in GPS geo- location.

New areas of applications, such as quantum biology, quantum computing and quantum communication via satellites are on the horizon, and they too have the potential to change our lives.

Not all is well with these two theories, however: While general relativity is great for understanding the universe on big scales, it describes atoms incorrectly. Quantum theory gets atoms right but it cannot correctly describe the expansion of the universe.

Much effort is therefore going into the development of one unifying theory of “quantum gravity” that applies in all circumstances. These studies concern the deepest mysteries of nature. For example, the universe is thought to have arisen from a quantum fluctuation and it is likely that the fabric of spacetime still continually somewhat vibrates due to small quantum vacuum fluctuations.

Along the way, studies into these questions produce surprising mathematical side results. For example, as I will explain, it recently turned out that the mere sound of a vibrating object such as that of a vibrating vase can give away all details of the shape of the vase.

Achim Kempf is a professor in the Departments of Applied Mathematics and Physics at the University of Waterloo (near Toronto) in Canada. He studied physics in Germany, at the Universities of Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Munich, obtaining his Ph.D. in 1993. From 1993 to 1998 he was a postdoc and a College Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He then spent three years as an IFT postdoctoral fellow at the University of Florida until he joined the faculty at the University of Waterloo (UW) in 2001. He is an associate member of the Institute for Quantum Computing at UW and he is an affiliate member of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Since 2004, he has held the Canada Research Chair for the Physics of Information.

Professor Kempf’s main research interest is the study of the interplay of information theory, quantum theory and general relativity. He showed that spacetime could be simultaneously continuous and discrete in the same way that information can be. His research interests also include inflationary cosmology as well as high temperature superconductors. He holds a patent related to data compression and has a patent on radar-related methods pending. He has also published in Mathematical Biology on the use of information theoretic methods in the study of the origin of life.

The University Physics Society will be having its annual Quiz Night this Thursday night at the Tav. It's a chance to show off your general knowledge whilst enjoying a few drinks with your friends, and have a chance to win great prizes! Doors open at 7pm. Quiz starts 7.30pm.

This event is 18+ only.

Tickets: $10 for UPS Members, $12 for non members, $72 for a table of 8 if purchased by a UPS Member.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or in Room 2.71 of the Physics Building weekdays between 1pm and 2pm.

Contact us via [email protected] for further details.

MRI is an incredibly versatile imaging modality stemming from the wide range of approaches that can be applied to generate image contrast. While qualitative imaging is common in clinical MRI, increasingly quantitative methods capable of measuring molecular tissue properties are being exploited. In this seminar I will present an overview of my research focussing on the application of quantitative MRI approaches to measure and map the distribution of; 1) iron, fat and fibrosis in the body and 2) magnetic nanoparticles to enable cell tracking and biodistribution studies of therapeutic agents.

The rules and details of UWA's Three Minute Thesis Competition will be described, and guidance will be given on how to present a talk suitable for this event. Doctoral and Masters Researchers, ECRs and academics within 7 years of PhD completion are eligible to compete.