NSW AIP Women in Physics Lectures

The Australian Institute of Physics International Women in Physics Lecture Series was instituted in 1998 to celebrate the contribution of women to advances in physics. Under this scheme, a woman who has made a significant contribution in a field of physics will give (at least) one lecture in a venue arranged by each participating branch of the AIP. The lecture will be of interest to a non-specialist physics audience and is expected to increase awareness among students and their families of the possibilities offered by continuing to study physics.

For further information contact: Dr Graeme Melville.

Women in Physics Lectures in 2010

The Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) is excited to announce that the 2010 Women in Physics (WIP) Lecturer is Professor Elizabeth Winstanley from the University of Sheffield in the UK.

Professor Winstanley's research interests lie in general relativity, quantum gravity and quantum field theory in curved space-time. Her research focuses on the physics of black holes, particularly "hairy'' (and more recently, "furry'') black holes in general relativity and the Hawking radiation of black holes as might be produced at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland. The latter topic will form the basis of many of her lectures in Australia. She maintains a keen interest in developments in mathematics and science education, serving on a number of national mathematics education committees in the UK.

Professor Winstanley is a past-chair of the Gravitational Physics Group of the UK Institute of Physics and has recently been a member of the Council of the London Mathematical Society, the UK's learned society for mathematics. Apart from physics, she enjoys watching sport, particularly cricket and rugby league, and has a broad taste in music, everything from Rachmaninov to Radiohead.

The NSW Branch of the AIP will be holding a number of exciting WIP lectures in Sydney and Wollongong:

"Black holes at the LHC”

Brane world models in string theory suggest that our universe is a slice, or ‘brane’, of a higher-dimensional space-time. In this talk we will discuss why one consequence of these models is that copious numbers of mini black holes may be formed by collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. We will describe how these mini black holes are created, and what happens to them once they have been produced. In particular, we discuss why these black holes will not swallow up the entire Earth.

Monday 2 August: Women in Physics Discussion Forum: 2 to 3pm (Room 320) in Physics at Sydney University. This will be followed by a lecture on Neutrinos.

Tuesday 3 August, 6 pm: Sydney Observatory (Bookings / enquiries: PH: (02) 9921 3485 or book online)

Thursday 5 August, 7 pm: University of Wollongong (Bookings are essential as seats are limited SOLD OUT. Please book through the Wollongong Science Centre on 02 42865000 or email: knoble @ uow.edu.au)