Each year, the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP) recognises outstanding physics students in tertiary education. In 2020, four UQ-SMP students have been duly acknowledged for their exceptional results, in addition to a former maths/physics student now an inspiring school teacher in Brisbane.
Guillaume Gauthier has been selected as the Queensland nominee for the AIP 2020 Bragg Gold Medal 
for Excellence in Physics. This national award recognizes the work done by a PhD student in Australia that is considered to be of outstanding quality. The prestigious gold medal was established in 1992 to commemorate Sir Laurence Bragg (whose picture is inscribed on the medal) and his father Sir William Bragg who shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics. We await the outcome of AIP’s award committee in deciding the national medal winner from all State nominations.
Three current SMP students were honoured with awards for the “Most Outstanding Graduating Student in a Physics Major” in their respective degrees from these universities:
Abbe Whitford – graduated Griffith University - studying astrophysics at UQ for her BSc Honours
Rianna Bell – third-year study in the UQ BAdvSc Honours
Adam Jolly – graduated University of Southern Queensland - studying MSc in physics at UQ.
Special mention is made for Shane MacDonald, an alumni of UQ (BSc 1994, MEdSt 2019) who received AIP’s 2020 Excellence in Physics Teaching Award. Shane is Assistant Head of Faculty (Science) at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School, Brisbane, who oversees and teaches senior physics. In recent years, he established an elective science subject for Years 9 and 10 students that uses principles of engineering and physics to investigate and solve a variety of challenges.
Congratulations to all for this special recognition by AIP.
