Brezels, Bragg & Butterflies: Topological Photonics behind novel broad-band chiro-optical material

Since the award of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics for “theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”, topological effects are all the hype in condensed matter physics. In a new paper “Bragg-mirror-like circular dichroism in bio-inspired quadruple-gyroid 4srs nanostructures“, just published by the Nature Group journal Light: Science & Applications, we describe the experimental realisation of a photonic material that owes its amazing optical properties to a topological effect.

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Scholarships for Undergraduate, Honours and PhD

Interested in undergraduate, honours or postgraduate studies in Maths or Physics (or other disciplines)?  My home institution, the School of Engineering and Information Technology at Murdoch University, has current open rounds for undergraduate scholarships, honours scholarships and PhD scholarships, open to both Australian and international applicants. This includes scholarships for mid-year intake! If you’re interested, drop me an email (see here for contact details). Also check out our brand-new research brochure about what’s happening research-wise in the maths department at Murdoch, or the research brochure for the whole school.

Australian Institute of Physics ‘Women in Physics’ lecture

“Women in Physics Day 2016” – a lecture by Italian-Romanian physicists Dr Catalina Curceanu, a panel discussion featuring some of Perth’s finest physicists and about 20 experiments on Bush Court including the ‘Walk on Water’ Non-Newtonian starch bath. Attendance with almost 600 high school kids well surpassed our wildest expectations. Need to do it again next year!

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Joint PhD project available with CSIRO Data61 Melbourne

From landslides to granular hoppers: can local structure metrics predict flow properties of granular materials?

The flow of granular materials are relevant to any industrial transport process of particulate matter – from minerals and sand to powders and pharmaceutical pills. Flow phenomena of loose or compacted granular materials are also important on the geophysical scale, in landslides, dunes or erosion processes. This proposed PhD thesis project uses state-of-the-art simulation methods for simulating granular flows Read more

DMV Article on negatively curved interfaces in materials, now also in English

The Bulletin of the German mathematical association ‘Mitteilungen der DMV’ has published an overview piece ‘In a material world: Hyperbolische Geometrie in biologischen Materialien’ by Myfanwy Evans and myself, describing the role of negatively curved interfaces, three-periodic nets and weavings, and more complicated entangled structures. Read more

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