UQ physicist wins prestigious Australian science award

A physics professor in the University of Queensland’s School of Physical Sciences has won the highest level award for physics in Australia.

Professor Peter Drummond will receive the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) 2004 Massey Medal at a ceremony in Canberra on Friday February 4.

The ceremony will take place at the largest ever AIP Congress, a special event to mark the 2005 International Year of Physics, celebrating 100 years of Albert Einstein`s achievements.

The award was made for Professor Drummond’s theoretical work carried out over a period of time. The most significant and widely cited work is the development of novel theoretical phase-space representations which have numerous applications in laser physics, physics of ultra-cold atoms and elsewhere.

His research findings have been verified in many laboratories and over 140 research papers have appeared in refereed journals, with 4200 citations to date.

Professor Drummond said it was a great honour to receive the Massey Medal and hoped his research would have benefits in years to come.

“Physics is a pure science which traditionally provides research results with long-term, future applications rather than immediate, present-day applications.

“Most of the technology used today was generated by physics research carried out decades ago, such as Maxwell`s equations for electricity and magnetism. These were discovered in the 1800s and today form the basis of modern electronics, computers and communication systems, including the internet and even mobile phones.”

Professor Drummond paid tribute to his work colleagues in UQ’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics, where most of his research is undertaken.

Media: For further information contact Lynda Flower, SPS Communications Officer, (telephone 07 3346 7264, mobile 0407 697 937, email l.flower@uq.edu.au)