AINSE 2024 Year in Review
AINSE is delighted to celebrate another exciting year filled with successful student events and high-quality research being carried out by our wonderful scholars. As the year draws to a close, the staff at AINSE would like to take this opportunity to reflect upon some of these achievements in more detail.
First, and most recently, AINSE were excited to celebrate AINSE staff member and recent PGRA scholar Rebecca Duncan, who has achieved literal superstar status as one of Science and Technology Australia’s 2025/2026 ‘Superstars of STEM’! We look forward to watching Rebecca share her remarkable insights into polar-field research as she becomes a global voice for Australian science. To read more about Rebecca’s work, please visit our recent spotlight for Polar December.
We also welcomed the appointment of two new staff members at AINSE in 2024: Georgia Barrington-Smith joined us in August 2024 as our Marketing and STEM Officer. Georgia has played a central role in launching our new ‘Research Spotlight Series’, where we showcase the research excellence of our AINSE scholars in conjunction with our regular Research Highlights in our Annual Report, which will be released in April 2025. Sarah Cooper joined us in January 2024 as an IT and Administration Assistant, and was instrumental in setting up our new and improved online portal to improve the user experience and streamline our application processes.
In 2024, AINSE were proud to support new and continuing students from our 42 university and industry members across Australia and New Zealand through the provision of:
- 30 new Pathway scholarships for Honours and Masters students;
- 113 top-up scholarships for PhD students, including 34 new Postgraduate Research Award (PGRA) and 4 new Residential Student Scholarships (RSS);
- 7 research exchange internships through the SAAFE (Scholarship AINSE ANSTO French Embassies) program;
- 17 new Early Career Researcher Grants, providing Early Career Researchers working with ANSTO the means to access additional opportunities in the initial stages of their research careers; and
- 174 places for undergraduate and postgraduate students who attended online or hybrid education schools, including the 28th Winter School, the Postgraduate Orientation Week, and the 8th Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) School.
In May, AINSE Scholar Gold Medals for excellence and impact in research were formally awarded to Dr. Oliver Paull (University of New South Wales), for his research on the development of a new class of functional materials called multiferroics, and to Dr. Yanxiang Meng (University of Melbourne), for his research investigating the molecular mechanisms of cell signalling during cell death. Further details regarding Dr. Paull’s and Dr. Meng’s research are available on our website
Following the Award Ceremony, AINSE’s annual networking dinner was held to bring together representatives from the Australian nuclear science and technology sector. AINSE member representatives from across Australia and New Zealand met with members of the AINSE and ANSTO Boards, representatives from ARWA, ARPANSA, the ANA, ATSE, and AusYGN, alongside AINSE alumni and ANSTO researchers, at the Sydney Masonic Centre. Gold Medal recipient Dr. Oliver Paull shared his AINSE-supported research into multiferroic materials with the assembled guests over dinner, in an extended conversation with AINSE President Prof. Ian Gentle. During the evening, AINSE staff member Nerissa Phillips received special acknowledgement for her 30 years of service to AINSE, over which time she has provided assistance and support to many hundreds of undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers on AINSE scholarships and awards.
AINSE also ran an extended suite of events this year, both online and in-person, with 174 students connecting with AINSE’s education schools throughout 2024.
In July, the 28th AINSE Winter School was expanded into a second online week of activities, welcoming the Heavy Ion Accelerator Facility (HIAF) into the suite of AINSE-supported facilities showcased during the event. The Winter School provided final-year undergraduate students with unique access to ANSTO researchers and a behind-the-scenes view of ANSTO’s landmark research infrastructure, including the centre for Accelerator Science (CAS), Australian Centre for Neutron (CAS) Scattering, Environment monitoring facilities, and Nuclear Materials development and characterisation facilities. This led to many fruitful discussions around future collaborations with ANSTO researchers on postgraduate research projects.
After exploring ANSTO facilities virtually, 42 participating students had the additional opportunity to visit ANSTO’s Lucas Heights campus in a series of two-day visits in September. These visits provided students with rare hands-on experiences of the day-to-day activities inside ANSTO’s Lucas Heights research facilities. A series of networking breakfasts hosted during the visit which provided additional networking opportunities for Winter School students to engage directly with ANSTO researchers and potential future research co-supervisors.
In October, nine students from the combined 2024 AINSE PGRA and RSS cohorts, along with 21 students interested in applying for future AINSE scholarships, attended the online annual AINSE Postgraduate Orientation Week. The program coincided with Nuclear Science Week, an international celebration of nuclear science. AINSE again coordinated with the Australian Young Generation in Nuclear (AusYGN), the Women in Nuclear (WiN) Australia chapter, the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, and the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque for the 2024 event.
In early November, AINSE supported the ANBUG-AINSE Neutron Scattering Symposium for 2024, hosted at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights Campus. The 2024 Australian Neutron Beam Users Group (ANBUG) presented awards for excellence across the neutron sector. Of the recipients were many previous AINSE scholars including Dr Joseph Bevitt – Neutron Award and Dr Rezwanul Haque – Young Scientist Award, who were given recognition for their outstanding work in neutron-based research. In addition, former AINSE president Prof. Brendan Kennedy was presented with the career award for his significant contribution to neutron science. We would also like to celebrate Dr Hayden Robertson for the award of Outstanding PhD and Dr Liliana de Campo -for the Technical Award due to contribution to instrumentation for neutron science.
To end the year, AINSE held our 8th Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) School, where 70 first-year undergraduate women from 21 AINSE member institutions were given the opportunity to gain invaluable career advice from a variety of distinguished researchers and entrepreneurs, including notable guest speakers including A/Prof. Natasha Hurley Walker, Radio Astronomer at Curtin University; Amanda Fortanier, the General Manager of Safety and Technical at the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA); and Amanda Bovis, the newly appointed Chief Engineer at ANSTO.
On the final two days of the program, 43 of the WISE students were able to visit ANSTO’s Sydney campus in Lucas Heights, with the remaining students continuing to participate in the full program in an online attendance mode. The cornerstone of the AINSE WISE program is a year-long mentorship program, and during the final days of the program the students were able to engage with their new ANSTO mentors through a ‘Meet the Mentors’ networking event. For those on-site, the networking continued at a harbourside dinner in Circular Quay Sydney with ANSTO mentors and AINSE staff. The WISE Mentorship Program will continue into 2025 with a collection of regular videoconferences and workshops involving ANSTO mentors, university members and invited guests to discuss pertinent topics about career progression in STEM disciplines.
Some of AINSE’s 2025 scholarships and programs have already opened for applications: in particular, applications for the AINSE Pathway Scholarship opened on 1st December and will remain open until 15th March 2025 for all Honours and Masters students. The next PGRA and RSS application rounds will be open on 1st February 2025 for all Ph.D students collaborating with ANSTO on their research projects. The next round of the SAAFE Research Internship Program also opened for applications on 13th December and will remain open until 1st July 2025.
Finally, the AINSE staff would like to wish all our scholars, supervisors, mentors and supporters our best wishes for the festive season. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday, and we look forward to supporting and celebrating even more of our scholars’ successes throughout 2025 and beyond!
Stay tuned for some exciting projects coming up in 2025, including the reveal of our new AINSE mascot!
Please note the AINSE office will be closed from Friday 20th December and will re-open on Monday 13th January 2024.
For more information on AINSE programs in 2025, please visit our Scholarships and Award page and follow us on our social media accounts for X (Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Threads account @ainse_ltd. To keep up to date with current AINSE news, sign up to our mailing list or visit ainse.edu.au/news-and-events. For any further enquires, please contact the AINSE staff at enquiries@ainse.edu.au.
See you in the new year!