A/Prof Kaye Morgan is based in the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University, working on new methods of coherent x-ray imaging and applying these methods in biomedical research collaborations. One of these collaborations was awarded the Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Science in 2023. Her experimental program uses large-scale facilities like the Australian Synchrotron, and more compact next-generation x-ray sources to achieve widespread adoption of the new imaging methods. In parallel, she works on new theoretical models to describe image formation and the associated inverse problem. Her research has been supported by a series of fellowships from the Australian Research Council (ARC DECRA, Future), the Victorian Endowment for Science, Knowledge and Innovation (Veski), and the Technical University of Munich Institute for Advanced Studies, alongside project funding from ARC and the National Health and Medical Research Council.

​Kenneth Crozier is Professor of Physics and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He is also Deputy Director of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS). Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, Kenneth Crozier was an associate professor at Harvard University. His research interests are in nano- and micro-optics, with an emphasis on optical metasurfaces, plasmonic nanotweezers, and photodetectors based on nanomaterials. He received his undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering (with LR East Medal) and Physics at the University of Melbourne. He received his MSEE and PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. In 2008, he was a recipient of a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (USA) and a Loeb Chair at Harvard, an endowed position for junior faculty. In 2014, he was awarded an Innovation Fellowship from VESKI (Victorian Endowment of Science, Knowledge and Innovation) and an ARC Future Fellowship on his return to Australia. He is a Fellow of Optica and of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE).

Dr Andy Boes is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Head for Research at the School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide. Andy obtained his PhD in Engineering in 2016 from RMIT University. He was a Research Fellow at RMIT University from 2016 to 2022 and spent a sabbatical year at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2017/18. Andy has been awarded the RMIT Award for Research Excellence – Early Career Researcher – Technology award, the Victoria Fellowship, the Geoff Opat Early Career Researcher Prize and an ARC DECRA fellowship.

Andy has comprehensive understanding and experience in the simulation, design, fabrication and characterisation of photonic integrated circuit chips and using these chips for applications in communication, microwave photonics, defence, quantum optics and sensing. Andy focuses on the micro- and nano fabrication of photonic integrated circuit chips, which use waveguide materials with attractive optical properties such as lithium niobate, silicon, silicon nitride and GaAs. He uses the materials properties of the waveguides for demonstrating highly efficient nonlinear optical and electro optical interactions, which enables photonic chips with compact footprint that can manipulate light on demand.

 Alexander Fuerbach received a PhD degree in Photonics in 2001 from Vienna University of Technology in Austria under the supervision of Nobel laureate Prof. Ferenc Krausz. He then joined the company Femtolasers Produktions GmbH where he was responsible for the development of advanced ultrashort-pulsed laser systems. In 2004, he returned to academia and moved to Australia where he studied ultrafast pulse propagation effects in novel microstructured optical fibres at the University of Sydeny.

In late 2005 he was awarded an Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship which allowed him to establish his own research group at Macquarie University in Sydney where he has been ever since. He is now full Professor within the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

Alexander Fuerbach’s principal research interests are focused on the interaction of femtosecond laser pulses with solid matter for photonic device fabrication and the development of waveguide and fibre laser systems, particular in the mid-infrared spectral region.

Professor Andy Martin completed his PhD in 1996 in theoretical condensed matter physics. After taking a two year break from academia he worked as a researcher at various Universities in Europe before moving to the University of Melbourne in 2004. During his career Professor Andy Martin has carried out research in a diverse range of condensed matter physics and quantum optics. Previous research has focused on the investigation of superconductivity, dephasing effects and charge fluctuations in electronic mesoscopic devices; modelling interfaces and disorder in high temperature superconductors and the breakdown of the integer quantum Hall. Recently his research has focused on the theoretical investigation of emergent properties of ultra-cold quantum gases; quench dynamics of few-body quantum systems and theoretical and experimental work on the effects of physical rotation on quantum systems using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centres in diamond. In addition to research Professor Andy Martin has over the years had a strong engagement in education programs at the University of Melbourne, across all year levels, and undertaken several leadership roles, with in the University. Currently Professor Andy Martin is the Associate Dean of Research, with the Faculty of Science.

Dr Anton Tadich is a senior staff scientist at the soft X-ray spectroscopy beamline in the Australian Synchrotron (ANSTO), where he has worked since 2008. He received his PhD in experimental physics from La Trobe University in 2007, focussing on the development of novel instrumentation for photoelectron spectroscopy. Anton has significant expertise in synchrotron-based x-ray and electron spectroscopies, vacuum instrumentation and surface science techniques, and is an expert in the application of these tools to investigate the chemical and electronic structure of reduced dimensional condensed matter systems. He is currently a Partner Investigator with the Australian Research Centre of Excellence in Future Low Energy Electronics (FLEET, www.fleet.org), and is the Victorian Branch treasurer for the Australian Institute of Physics.

Professor Nicole Bell is the President of the Australian Institute of Physics. Prof Bell is a theoretical physicist at the University of Melbourne. Her research lies at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, with particular focus on dark matter and neutrino physics. She leads the Theory Program of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics, and was a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale. Prof Bell is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was awarded the 2020 Nancy Millis Medal by the Australian Academy of Science.

Chris is a Physics teacher who has been teaching in secondary schools for over 30 years. He has also spent 15 years lecturing and researching in Initial Teacher Education at Federation University, educating pre-service teachers in professional practice units and science curriculum.

Chris was the Inaugural Master Teacher of Science at the Victorian Academy of Teaching and Leadership and is currently a council member of the Science Teachers Association of Victoria and co-convenor of the annual Australian science teachers conference (CONASTA) in Melbourne in July.

Stuart has a PhD in computational theoretical physics from the University of Western Australia (Quantum Waveguide Theory) and has worked in academia, national computing facilities and industry.

With over 25 years’ experience in the high-performance computing sector, Stuart has been using, programming, administering, designing, building, and now ‘evangelising’ some of the largest HPC systems in the world.

He is currently Program Leader for High Performance Computing at Defence Science Technology Group.

Dr Gail Iles is an Associate Professor in Physics at RMIT University, Melbourne Australia and Chair of the Victorian branch of the Australian Institute of Physics. A/Prof Iles teaches Nuclear Physics and Solid State Physics and is the Program Manager for the Bachelor of Space Science. A/Prof Iles completed a PhD in experimental Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Leicester, UK in 2007, after which she held a number of post-doctoral positions at neutron sources in France in Germany. Moving to Australia in 2014, A/Prof Iles worked at ANSTO in Sydney before settling in Melbourne at RMIT.

A/Prof Iles’ research involves designing, constructing and launching physics experiments into space on board sounding rockets or using Earth-based parabolic flights for pre-launch qualification. She specialises in advanced characterisation of complex samples using techniques such as neutron powder diffraction and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy.

 An outspoken member of the Physics community, A/Prof Iles regularly discusses the latest physics news on 3AW and is a regular presenter in the VicPhys Teacher’s network scheme, ‘Girls in Physics Breakfasts’.

Associate Professor Trevor Finlayson is an Honorary Principal Fellow in the School of Physics and the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne, following a long career as an academic at Monash University teaching Materials Science and Physics. His research has been in the general area of Materials Science/Condensed Matter Physics with various projects concerned with the structure and properties of materials exhibiting structural instabilities. His current research projects use mainly neutron scattering to study transformations in various martensitic materials. Trevor is also a Distinguished Member of the Australian Association of von Humboldt Fellows, of which he is Honorary Secretary.

Professor Mark Krumholz FAA received his PhD in theoretical astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2005. He then held positions as a NASA Hubble Fellow at Princeton University and assistant and associate professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz before moving to a professorship at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Australian National University in 2015. His research focuses on interstellar gas dynamics, astrophysical structure formation, and transport of high-energy particles in interstellar space, and on numerical methods for simulations of these processes. He currently serves as co-chair of the Group for Astroparticle Physics, a joint committee of the Australian Institute of Physics and the Astronomical Society of Australia. Professor Krumholz’s honours include the Alexander von Humboldt Award, the Astronomical Society of Australia’s Anne Green Prize, the ARC Laureate Fellowship, and Fellowship in the Australian Academy of Science.

Prof Archil Kobakhidze is a theoretical physicist working on various theoretical and phenomenological aspects of particle physics, gravity and cosmology. He is known for his contributions to unified theories of fundamental interactions, the development of theories of gravity on ‘quantum spacetimes’, gravitational wave signatures of cosmological phase transitions, non-perturbative quantum gravity effects in particle physics and the development of the scale-invariant particle physics and cosmological theories.