Want to know more?

Then come along to the Keys to the Universe public lecture presented by The University of Adelaide’s School of Chemistry & Physics on Thursday 19 November at 6.30pm, Union Hall

ASTONISHING FACT REVEALED: The expansion of the Universe is speeding up!  Learn about how the universe is dominated by a mysterious “dark energy” that drives cosmic acceleration.

The esteemed Professor Robert P. Kirshner from Harvard University will present his exciting lecture – “Exploding Stars and the Accelerating Cosmos: Einstein’s Blunder Undone”

Venue, Time & Date: Union Hall, 6:30pm Thursday 19th November 2009

It may have been Friday 13th and 40 degrees outside but the atmosphere in the Benham lecture theatre was one of quiet anticipation.

8 slightly nervous Honours students presented their final seminars to their peers, staff and supporters. Questions were handled with aplomb and there was mass sigh of relief once if was all over was!

Congratulations to Jess, Belinda, Corey, Chris, Adam, Liz, Sarah and Imogen!

Belinda Gordon, Chris Butcher and Liz Maciunas

Corey Barrett and Assoc. Prof Sue Carthew

Over 100 University of Adelaide students hope to become volunteers at Adelaide Zoo in the coming months.

The eager students recently attended a briefing session held in Union Hall and hosted by Zoos SA staff. In conjunction with the University of Adelaide, Zoos SA has been running a recruitment drive for volunteers with Chinese language skills or an interest in animals to cope with the anticipated increase in visitors when the Giant Pandas Wang Wang and Funi arrive later this year.

At the briefing the students were given an insight into what it means to be a volunteer at Adelaide Zoo, including what a typical day might involve. The students, once trained and qualified, will become members of the general volunteer pool and will perform a number of duties around the Zoo. The University of Adelaide is generously covering a number of costs for the student volunteers including their membership with the Royal Zoological of SA and special uniforms sporting the university crest. Next time you visit Adelaide Zoo, remember to look out for one of our student volunteer guides!

Picture L to R: Trevor Klein (volunteer and member of the Guide Training team), Sarah Brown (Director, Visitor Experience) and Ngareta Cronin (Manager, Volunteers Program) from Zoos SA join Robyn Brown (Director, Development and Alumni) from the University of Adelaide at the student volunteer briefing.

Three University of Adelaide students competed at the recent Australian University Crops Competition.

They are Thomas Copely – 2nd year BSc(AgSc) student, Wayne Mattschoss – 2nd year BSc(AgSc) student and Michael Noble – 3rd year BAg student. Of these three students, Michael Noble came 2nd in the competition!

University students and lecturers from across Australia participated in a three-day agricultural learning event at Temora in the NSW Riverina. The event culminated in the  inaugural Australian University Crops Competition (AUCC). The competition has been designed for students to gain a greater understanding of the industry, outside of the existing curriculum.   If you would like to know about the Agriculture degrees on offer at The University of Adelaide, please go to Find a Program on our website.

Congratulations to all our competitors and in particular to Michael!

Michael Noble is 3rd from the left

The Department of Trade and Economic Development (DTED) have launched their campaign “There’s more to it“.

The campaign is designed to promote career pathways into professional, para-professional and trade roles in the defence, resources and technology industries and is targeted at year 9 & 10s state-wide.

Kate Selway is a graduate of the University of Adelaide and a winner of the 2008 Young Achiever of the Year award. She is currently working as a Research Associate in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The Ramsay Fellowship was established in 2008 with a significant bequest from the Ramsay family, founders of the Kiwi Polish Company (later Kiwi International), the famous shoe polish manufacturers.

Hamish Ramsay fulfilled his late stepmother’s wish to help advance scientific research by pledging funds for four-year Ramsay Fellowships.

Dr Kate Wegener, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, will be the first of the Ramsay Fellows and eventually the Fellowship will support four independent research fellows.

The Faculty of Sciences welcomes Dr Wegener back to Adelaide, and wishes her every success as she undertakes her research!

For more details about Dr Wegener’s research focuses, please view her story in Lumen.

Running shoes replaced textbooks when the University of Adelaide’s five academic faculties lined up against each other to compete for the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Cup!

The footrace through the North Terrace Campus was the culmination of a week-long Inter-Faculty Active Recreation Week, from September 7 to 11.

Congratulations to the winning Faculty of Engineering, Maths & Computer Science, who were presented with the Vice-Chancellor’s Cup trophy!

Loosely based on the 1980s Hugh Hudson film Chariots Of Fire, the race locally will be called ‘The Lions of Adelaide’ and, reminiscent of the film, the runners were dressed in white with designated faculty colours across their chests.

The Inter-Faculty Active Recreation Week is being organised by the Adelaide University Sports Association to boost some healthy inter-faculty rivalry, raise awareness of the Association’s clubs and activities and to promote the benefits of active recreation and a healthy lifestyle. 

For anyone who missed last night’s terrific free public lecture, make like a gravitron escaping from a spinning black hole and get a move on to download the podcast!

Podcast: Cracking the Einstein Code: Relativity and the Birth of Black Hole Physics

Speaker: Prof Fulvio Melia

Stay tuned for announcements of the next Keys to the Universe lecture in the series!

The University of Adelaide’s School of Chemistry & Physics presents a free Public Lecture…

”Cracking the Einstein Code – Relativity and the Birth of Black Hole Physics” presented by Fulvio Melia, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Arizona and Associate Editor of the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Thursday 17 September at 6pm Napier Lecture Theatre 102

Level 1 Napier Building (follow the signs), University of Adelaide, North Terrace

Admission: Free

Prof Fulvio Melia will present the exciting account of how Albert Einstein’s mathematical code for general relativity was cracked. Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes the effect of gravitation on the shape of space and the flow of time. But for more than four decades after its publication, the theory remained largely a curiosity for scientists; however accurate it seemed, Einstein’s mathematical code—represented by six interlocking equations—was one of the most difficult to crack in all of science.

That is, until a twenty-nine-year-old Cambridge graduate solved the great riddle in 1963. Roy Kerr’s solution emerged coincidentally with the discovery of black holes that same year and provided fertile testing ground—at long last—for general relativity. Today, scientists routinely cite the Kerr solution, but even among specialists, few know the story of how Kerr cracked Einstein’s code.

Fulvio Melia offers an eyewitness account of the events leading up to Kerr’s great discovery. Cracking the Einstein Code vividly describes how luminaries such as Karl Schwarzschild, David Hilbert, and Emmy Noether set the stage for the Kerr solution; how Kerr came to make his breakthrough; and how scientists such as Roger Penrose, Kip Thorne, and Stephen Hawking used the accomplishment to refine and expand modern astronomy and physics. Today more than 300 million supermassive black holes are suspected of anchoring their host galaxies across the cosmos, and the Kerr solution is what astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe much of their behavior.

By unmasking the history behind the search for a real world solution to Einstein’s field equations, Melia offers a firsthand account of an important but untold story. Sometimes dramatic, often exhilarating, but always attuned to the human element, Cracking the Einstein Code is ultimately a showcase of how important science gets done.

For anyone wanting information about studying Animal Science or Veterinary Science, the Roseworthy campus is having its annual Open Day this Sunday 11am – 3pm.

There will be plenty of experts around to answer your questions about these degrees, as well as showcasing the exciting research and teaching facilities! You can take a tour and see the sights, including the construction of the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences teaching hospital.

For more information about how to get to Roseworthy, as well as a campus map, please visit the campus page.