What started as an idea in 2014 by Dr Tim Molteno to develop the world’s smallest radio telescope at the University of Otago, is now being rolled out across eight partner nations of the Square Kilometre Array project in Southern Africa! buff.ly/49l6Xn9 University of Otago SKA Observatory

2023 Dan Walls Medal Public Lecture Prof. David Wiltshire, University of Canterbury "Maths powers black holes, the Universe and everything" WEDNESDAY 15 NOV, 5:30 PM OTAGO MUSEUM, BARCLAY THEATRE buff.ly/3QtYZ2q

Congratulations to PhysicsOtago and Dodd-Walls Centre investigator Niels Kjaergaad, who was awarded the Hector Medal by Royal Society Te Apārangi in Christchurch tonight. Niels is away so Suzanne and Matthew collected the award. With Richard Blaikie.

Professor Niels Kjærgaard awarded the Hector Medal for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of scientific understanding of fundamental particles, through experimental studies of atomic collisions and light-scattering using ultracold gases. buff.ly/47vRzTh

In work just published in Nature Communications, University of Otago Physicists analysed ozone levels from 2004 to 2022, and found there is much less ozone in the centre of the Antarctic ozone hole compared to 19 years ago. buff.ly/46zO9hC

“…we report an experimental observation of the out-of-equilibrium dynamics of a degenerate Fermi gas in the cavity after quenching the pump strength over a superradiant quantum phase transition…” Original paper: doi.org/10.1103/PhysRe…

Photonic Crystal Ring Resonators for Tailored Optical Microcombs Dr Erwan Lucas, Research Fellow, Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne. Friday 15 December, 12:00pm, room 314 Science III buff.ly/472vB9M

Hands on Physics at Otago 2024! buff.ly/49ud8oo

Public Seminar: Waves in a Plasma Ocean: Wave-Particle Interactions Throughout the Solar System Associate Professor Allison Jaynes University of Iowa buff.ly/4d2AQuc

Seminar: “Concepts of quantum machine learning” Assoc Professor Christopher Gies Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universitat Bremen Wednesday 1 May 2024 12.00pm Room 314 Science III Building buff.ly/4djB1Sc

Professor Craig Rodger leads an international team of scientists working on making New Zealand’s energy infrastructure able to withstand large space weather events like Saturday’s geomagnetic storm. Find out about solar storm media coverage at buff.ly/3QI34RB

otagomuseum.nz/whats-on/quant…

Public Lecture: The Physics of Light in Eighty Pictures Professor Michael Berry Castle 2 Lecture Theatre, 6-7pm, Friday 16 August 2024 buff.ly/4dkK3xO

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Today!

Petra Fisher, Physics BSc (Hons) student at Otago, is one of four Woolf Fisher Trust scholarship awardees for New Zealand in 2025. The prestigious scholarship will fund Petra’s doctoral research at the University of Cambridge. Congratulations Petra! buff.ly/48wvaaf

The excitations & emergence of a shear modulus in a dipolar supersolid. The result of a collaboration with the Ferlaino Group and a summer visit by PhD student Elena Poli: Phys. Rev. A 110, 053301 (2024) - Excitations of a two-dimensional supersolid journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/1…

Nir Navon Seminar: "Quantum Many-body Physics with Fermions in an Optical Box" buff.ly/4ehOfhG

Congratulations to Blair Blakie (Outstanding Researcher) and Hannah Kasenich (Best Research Paper) for their divisional awards 2024! buff.ly/3Zp8A03

Congratulations to Zade Johnston. In addition to submitting his PhD recently, he has just published a paper in Physical Review Letters. journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/1…