Finders University Node Director Prof. Michael Brunger and CAMS Theme Leader Dr. James Sullivan attended the 5th Conference on Elementary Processes in Atomic Systems (CEPAS 2011) held in Belgrade, Serbia, in June at the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. CEPAS is held triennially to promote the growth and exchange of scientific information in the field of atomic physics and is focused mainly on the fundamental processes induced in atoms and molecules by interactions with charged particles and electromagnetic fields. Prof. Brunger and Dr. Sullivan both presented invited talks at the meeting. In the picture, Prof. Brunger (right) and Dr. Sullivan (left) are relaxing with Institute of Physics Belgrade colleague Dr. Gordana Malovic after making their presentations earlier in the day.

The Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) continues its experimental work at the ANU Node of CAMS, with ANU CAMS Researcher Dr. Selvakumar Sellaiyan who normally spends most of his time seconded to ANSTO in Sydney returning to Canberra to undertake key Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy (PALS) measurements using the ANU Positron Materials Beamline. Dr. Sellaiyan is currently investigating the development of scratch resistant & self healing paints, and by understanding the micro-porosity of these thin film paints with the use of PALS he hopes that one day such paints will be commercially available. CAMS PhD students Jason Roberts (left) and Ryan Weed (right) provided Dr. Sellaiyan (centre) with invaluable support in the analysis of his many samples during his weeklong visit to Canberra in June.

CAMS has been one of the first users of the new iVEC $5 million Supercomputer Linux cluster at Murdoch University. Deputy Research Director and Curtin University Professor Igor Bray has used the Supercomputer to model atomic collisions, contributing to the development of nuclear fusion technology - the most dense source of energy known in the universe. Professor Bray can be heard talking about how the Supercomputer has assisted him in his work at http://bcove.me/ao8o47zm, and other early adopters and applications for the Supercomputer can also be seen at http://www.itnews.com.au/News/260848,epic-supercomputing-projects-revealed.aspx.

A Centre of Excellence should be much stronger than simply the sum of the individual nodes, and CAMS PhD students are encouraged to use this added strength to their advantage. Mr. Wade Tettersall and Dr. Luca Chiari are two such examples of students leveraging the strengths that flow from CAMS. Both Wade and Luca are undertaking their PhD’s across multiple Nodes, Wade at the ANU and James Cook University and Luca through Trento University (Italy), Flinders University and the ANU. Both are currently visiting the ANU to undertake experiments as part of their PhD research projects. Wade in particular has been able to combine the ANU’s experimental expertise with the theoretical strengths from James Cook University, whilst Luca’s focus on experimental work has benefited from access to experimental facilities across three CAMS centres.

CAMS welcomes new PhD student, Bronson Phillipa, into the Centre where he will be working at the James Cook University Node with Dr. Ron White. Bronson recently received a University medal for his honours thesis on "the application of fractional calculus techniques to model transport of charges particles in disordered media", and we look forward to his ongoing excellence in research.

There has been some recent movements from CAMS to California. Dr. Dan Slaughter has taken a position at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories in Berkeley after finishing his posdoctoral position at the ANU node of CAMS and recently submitted PhD student, Adric Jones, is also headed to California to work as a postdoc at the University of California, San Diego with CAMS associate, Prof. Cliff Surko.

Check out the latest news from around CAMS, contained in the September Newsletter. Highlights include profiles of our new COO and administrator, Adam Edwards and Julia Wee, as well as a report on the recent SLOPOS12 conference, organised by CAMS and held at Magnetic Island in August.

The Flinders node of CAMS recently welcomed three distinguished scientists to its laboratories. Emeritus Professor Roy Newell from University College London is visiting from January 30th until March 20th, Dr Hidetoshi Kato is visiting again from Sophia University in Japan from January 17th until March 20th and Professor Klaus Bartscaht from Drake University, Iowa, USA was with us briefly from February 19th-27th. Professor Bartschat had previously visited the ANU node and will continue his epic drive around Australia by heading west to the Curtin node.

Congratulations go to CAMS James Cook University Node Director and Executive Member, Ron White, who has just been promoted to Associate Professor. Ron heads the Centre's transport theory group, which has recently been cited as having developed "the most rigorous and complete treatment of electron transport" available, and which under Ron's leadership is making great strides in formulating a new transport analysis for positrons in soft condensed matter, with applications to PET in mind. It has been a big year for Ron, and not only in research. He received an Australian Learning and Teaching Council National Citation, and a JCU Faculty Citation for Teaching Excellence. He was Invited Speaker at the XVI International Symposium Electron- and Photon- Molecule Collisions and Swarms, Toronto, and was awarded substantial Queensland Smart State funding to work on Organic Solar Cells together with colleagues at the University of Queensland and JCU.

Dr Hidetoshi Kato from Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan is visiting the Flinders and ANU nodes of CAMS from November 1st until December 14th, 2009. During his stay he will work on various experiments at both nodes, as well as doing simulations for the role of electron-driven processes in the atmosphere of Titan. The visit of Dr. Kato was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). We all wish him every success during his stay with us.

At a recent dinner the South Australian Branch of the Australian Institute of Physics presented Dr Laurence Campbell with its inaugural Outstanding Contribution Award. The award is in the form of a perpetual shield which is updated every year. The staff and students of CAMS heartily congratulates Laurie on his well deserved award.

The Australia—Malaysia Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade today announced funding support of $7,100 for the project: Studying the Excellence in Research for Australia Initiative — Are there lessons for Malaysia? The grant enables the distinguished Atomic and Molecular Physicist, Professor Kuru Ratnavelu, of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur to visit the Flinders University node of CAMS for 1 month in early 2010. In addition to studying the Flinders University Excellence in Research for Australia experience, Professor Ratnavelu will conduct a series of master classes on current theoretical methods in atomic scattering theory and undertake some research with CAMS staff at Flinders University,the ANU and Charles Darwin University.

Welcoming the news of the funding success, Professor Michael Brunger, Flinders CAMS — node leader, thanked the Vice Chancellor of the University of Malaya (Professor Ghauth Jasmon) and the interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Flinders (Professor Andrew Beer) for their support.

Professor Gustavo Garcia, of the Instituto de Fisica Fundamental, Madrid, is visiting the Flinders University and ANU nodes of CAMS from August 18th until September 7th, 2009. While at Flinders Professor Garcia will give a seminar entitled "Modelling electron and photon interactions for biomedical uses of radiation". The visit of Professor Garcia is supported by DIISR through its International Science Linkages program and Flinders University Faculty of Science and Engineering through a Visiting Research Fellowship.

Dr Kate Nixon (Flinders University) has won a prestigious Newton Fellowship to undertake work with Professor Andrew Murray at the University of Manchester, UK. Kate will take up her position early in 2010.

Ms Jessica Francis-Staite won a 2009 Flinders University Research Student Travel Grant of $1500 to attend the USA and POSMOL satellite meeting in Canada, both in July 2009

Mr Ryan Weed (ANU) has been awarded a Vice-Chancellor's Research Student Travel Grant of $1500 to attend a Course on 'Physics with Many Positrons' at the Enrico Fermi International School of Physics in Varenna, Italy, in July 2009.

CAMS would like to congratulate Doctor Ron White, the CAMS JCU Node Director, on winning the James Cook University's 2009 Faculty Citations for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.

Dr. Alisher Kadyrov, Prof. Igor Bray, Prof. Andris Stelbovics and their fellow researchers from the CAMS Curtin University node have, following ten years of investigation, found the most general formulae that govern collisions involving atomic breakup. The results of their breakthrough study have been published in Annals of Physics and have been featured on the Science Alert website.

PhD student Ms Jessica Francis-Staite was awarded a prestigious Elaine Martin Travelling Fellowship on 3 April, 2009 in order so that she could attend ICPEAC and the POSMOL satellite in late July/early August 2009. The travel bursary is awarded on the basis of academic merit.

Professor Dennis Mueller has arrived at the ANU to spend a 6 month sabbatical working with the CAMS team. Dennis' experience in molecular physics is welcomed, and we look forward to an interesting and productive time while he is here.

 

Ana Bankovic, a PhD student from the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, is visiting the ANU node of CAMS until the end of March. Ana is participating in experiments on positron scattering from water, and working on simulations of positron transport which will also be applied to water.

The eminent South Korean scientist Professor Hyuck Cho is visiting the Flinders node of CAMS from Feb 2nd – Feb 10th. While at Flinders he will give a School Seminar entitled "Electron Scattering Experiments at Chungnam National University", as well as working with staff and students on the molecular radicals apparatus. Thereafter Professor Cho travels to the ANU node for the period Feb 10th – 13th. Professor Hyuck's visit is proudly sponsored by Australian Academy of Science, KOSEF and Flinders University.

CAMS Flinders Node Director, Prof. Michael Brunger was recently awarded Fellowship of the American Physical Society. Professor Brunger was cited for this honour in the Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics "for benchmark measurements of electron scattering from molecules, specifically concerning absolute collision cross sections and electron momentum spectroscopy." CAMS congratulates Prof. Brunger on this prestigious achievement.

CAMS recently celebrated its two newest doctoral graduates. CAMS congratulates Dr Leigh Hargreaves and Dr Penny Thorn. Dr Todd Maddern, a Research Fellow with the CAMS Flinders University node was in attendance at the ceremony, where Dr Kate Nixon (second from left, now working at the Flinders node) also graduated. Dr Hargeaves has a postdoctoral position in the CAMS node at the University of Adelaide, while Dr Thorn has a postdoctoral position with the University of Windsor (Canada).

Professor Bolorizadeh, based at the University of Kerman, Iran, will be working with the Flinders Node on the Molecular Radicals experiment. Professor Bolorizadeh is visiting from October 27th until November 25th and will present a seminar entitled "A Three-body approach to Scattering Problems in Atomic Collisions" during his visit. CAMS thanks the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Flinders University for its award of a Visiting Research Fellowship to Prof Bolorizadeh.

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Dr. Kate Nixon (Flinders University) has recently been awarded a British Council Researcher Exchange Grant to enable her to work with Professor Andrew Murray at Manchester University for 1 month in 2009. All of CAMS congratulates Kate on this important award.

Paul Guagliardo (UWA CAMS PhD Student) and Eskender Mume (ANU/ANSTO visiting Post Doctoral Fellow) test samples on the newly commissioned PALS unit at ANSTO in mid September 2008. Thanks to the generosity of Prof Jim Williams (UWA CAMS Node Director), the PALS unit will stay at ANSTO for the next 6 months. Paul Guagliardo will also stay at ANSTO for a short period to run the machine and receive training in radiochemistry and application of nuclear probes for assessing function of materials.

The commissioning of the PALS unit at ANSTO is a collaboration between the UWA and ANSTO CAMS Nodes.

In mid August, Professor Akira Uedono (Tsukuba Uni, Japan) visits ANSTO to train Post Doctoral Fellow Tony Sergeant and PhD Student, Paul Guagiardo (UWA) in the setting up and commissioning of a Positron Lifetime Annihilation Spectroscopy (PALS) unit supplied by UWA.

Prof Akira Uedono also gave lectures on application of fast and slow positrons in material science at ANSTO Bragg Institute.

Professor Hyuck Cho of Chungnam National University, Republic of Korea, has been awarded funding from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) and the Australian Academy of Science, through the Academy of Science Korea Exchange Program 2008/09, to visit the Flinders-node of CAMS. He will also visit Professor Stephen Buckman and Dr. James Sullivan at the ANU-node to continue their productive collaboration.

Professor Cho will work on the unique "radicals" apparatus at Flinders University during his 2 week stay in Australia, in early February 2009.

CAMS postgraduate student Stuart Napier was recently invited to attend the Meeting of Nobel Laureates, an event held annually in Lindau since 1951. Stuart was one of nearly 600 invited attendees from almost 50 countries. Stuart said the highlight of the meeting was being able to listen to and converse with Nobel Laureates.

"This kind of exposure to scientists of their calibre, in particular hearing them describe the processes by which their achievements were reached, is of invaluable benefit."

Ms Thi Phuong Thao Do has joined the Flinders node of CAMS to undertake a Master of Science degree on "Electron impact excitation of the triplet B electronic state in ethylene". Thao is from Ho Chi Minh city in Vietnam and is being supported by a Vietnamese Government scholarship. All of CAMS wishes Thao every success in her studies.

Ms Kate Nixon has joined the Flinders node from 3rd March. Kate will be working on positron and electron interactions with bio-molecules as one of the DEST/ISL milestones. All of CAMS welcomes Kate and wishes her every success in her new role.

Joint Flinders-ANU honours student Mr Tyler Raeside was awarded First Class Honours in 2007 and has been awarded a University Medal by Flinders University. Ms Emma Lawrance, who has joined the Flinders node of CAMS to do her honours research in 2008, has been announced as one of the two DSTO-AIP Scholarship winners. Ms Lawrance will work with Dr Brunger at Flinders and Dr GRJ Williams and Associate Professor Mark Buntine of Adelaide University during her honours year.

A hearty congratulations to both Tyler and Emma from everyone in CAMS.

CAMS welcomes new staff member Dr Dan Slaughter who has commenced a joint appointment (ANU/Adelaide) funded under the International Science Linkages Programme and will be working on a project to build a 'positron reaction microscope'. This is a collaborative project between the Centre and the Max Planck Institute Heidelberg.

We also welcome new PhD student Ryan Weed, who has commenced his graduate studies at ANU on the materials beamline. Ryan is from the US and did his undergraduate/Masters studies at Wellesley College and Columbia University.

Professor W. R. Newell, from University College London, is visiting the Flinders node from 25th January until 18th March, 2008. Professor Newell will be working with Dr Todd Maddern on the radicals experiment, as well as giving a series of Honours-level lectures, during his stay.

Dr Charles Clark, Chair of the CAMS Advisory Board, is the recipient of a 2007 Presidential Rank Award. Winners of this prestigious award are strong leaders, professionals, and scientists who achieve results and consistently demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and a relentless commitment to excellence in public service. All recipients receive a framed certificate signed by the President.

Professor Mike Charlton has won a Senior Research Fellowship from the EPSRC which will enable him to devote his full time to research on anti-hydrogen, both in Swansea and at CERN. The award of this Fellowship is in part in recognition of the role that he played in the production of anti-hydrogen in the ATHENA collaboration at CERN.

The CAMS Director, Professor Stephen Buckman, has received the Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Contribution to the ANU, for distinguished service of a high degree.

The second CAMS Workshop will take place from 6-8 February, 2008, at the Murramarang Resort just north of Bateman's Bay, NSW. All CAMS members, both staff and students, are strongly encouraged to attend. A call for papers will be made in the near future.

The ANU Node welcomes Professor Gustavo Garcia of the Instituto de Matematicas y Fisica Fundamental Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Madrid. Professor Garcia will be on sabbatical at the ANU for six months from 5th October.

The Research Director of CAMS, Prof. Stephen Buckman, was invited to give a public lecture about the Centre's research at James Cook University, Townsville. The lecture was delivered on Thursday 20 September 2007, and was entitled "Antimatter — Does it matter?."

Dr Alexander Dorn of the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg, Germany is visiting the ANU node of CAMS from 3rd to 14th September. While there, he will be giving a seminar titled "The Reaction Microscope: Investigations into Atomic and Molecular Dynamics For the detailed investigation of ionization processes". The talk is scheduled for Thursday 13th at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering

The ANU Node of CAMS welcomes the following students:

Masters students Tegan Donald and David Harcourt, who under the supervision of Prof. Stephen Buckman, will be undertaking projects contributing to their MSc degrees in science communication within the Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at ANU. Their project work will include developing an exhibit at Questacon, and putting together presentations for public lectures and school visits, as well as web based material.

PhB student Allan Xiao, who will be working on a project in the CAMS lab with Dr James Sullivan.

CDU CAMS Node Director, Dr. Jim Mitroy, has received his Vice-Chancellor's award for "exceptional performance in research", while the Vice-Chancellor's award for "research excellence" at Murdoch University went to CAMS Node Director Prof. Igor Bray.

On 20th July the DVC(R) of La Trobe University, Professor Erich Weigold, will present a copy of the recently published book: "Nanoscale Interactions and Their Applications: Essays in Honour of Ian McCarthy" to Mrs Janet McCarthy.

Also present will be the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering at Flinders, Professor WD Lawrance, Professor Reg Cahill and Professor Iraj Afnan. The book was co-edited by the CAMS Flinders-node leader, Dr M. J. Brunger. The presentation is sponsored by CAMS.

Professor Zoran Petrovic from the Institute of Physics, Belgrade, is visiting the JCU and ANU Nodes until 2 July, for research collaboration with Drs. White, Ness and Robson. While at the ANU Professor Petrovic will give a seminar on electron and positron transport phenomena.

Members of the Murdoch Node of CAMS, led by Professor Igor Bray, joined with several other theoretical groups to organise a "Workshop on theoretical studies of scattering, structure, dynamics and imaging in electronic systems", held at the School of Physics, University of Melbourne, on 28 May

The CAMS Annual Report for 2006 is now available online. The Annual Report contains a record of CAMS activities for 2006 as well as the personnel and projects involved in the Centre.

The AINSE Secretary, Dr Dennis Mather, today confirmed a 2007 AINSE Award Grant to Dr Martin Johnston (Flinders University) and Dr Michael Brunger (Flinders University and CAMS), for a joint project with Dr Suzanne Smith (ANSTO and CAMS). The project will investigate the next generation of ⁶⁴Cu positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents. This joint project will see work undertaken with the new 600MHz Flinders NMR apparatus at Flinders University, as well as in Dr Smith's laboratory at ANSTO.

Professor Klaus Bartschat of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA, is visiting the ANU Node from 14th - 17th March, and giving a seminar on the following topic:

"High-Precision Cross Sections for Low-Energy Electron-Atom Collisions: Critical Ingredients for Modeling Plasmas, Lasers, Stars and the Atmosphere"

Date: Friday, 16 March 2007, 11:00am
Venue: Link Building Seminar Room

Professor Bartschat will also be visiting the Flinders University and Murdoch University nodes of the Centre.

On March 1st, 2007, Professor Franco Dalfovo, Director of the Department of Physics at the University of Trento (Italy) and Dr Michael Brunger, CAMS Flinders node-leader, signed a memorandum of understanding that details the collaboration between Dr Brunger and Professor Antonio Zecca (Trento). This agreement is for an initial period of 3 years. Later, in a separate meeting, the Rector of the University of Trento, Professor Davide Bassi, lent further practical support to this agreement.

The research Director, Prof. Stephen Buckman, extends a warm welcome to the following people who have joined CAMS in 2007:

Dr Mallenahally Dharmaprakesh and Dr Eskender Mume - Postdoctoral Fellows at ANSTO, Dr Casten Makochekanwa - Postdoctoral Fellow jointly with Flinders University and ANU, Dr Anthony Sergeant - Postdoctoral Fellow at UWA, Ms Jessica Francis-Staite - PhD student at Flinders University, Mr Adric Jones and Mr Peter Caradonna - PhD students at ANU, Mr Chris Bostok and Mr Ravshanbek Utamuratov - PhD students at Murdoch University, Mr Paul Guagliardo and Mr Peter Wilkie - PhD students at UWA and Mr Chris Colyer - PhD student at Adelaide University.

Dr WL Skip Morgan will be visiting the Flinders node for 4 weeks from March 19th. While there Dr Morgan will work on the application of a recently constructed H₂O cross section data base to electron transport phenomena. He will also give a School seminar. We all welcome Skip to CAMS.

CAMS is delighted to welcome a new Research Partner, Dr. Michael Bromley of San Diego State University. Dr. Bromley will colaborate with CAMS researchers on the problem of positron binding to atoms. In particular, Dr. Bromley will work with Dr. Jim Mitroy on theoretical calculations of this process.

The Minister, Julie Bishop, has just advised that the CAMS proposal for funding under round 11 of the ISL program has been successful. The three year program, commencing July 2007, will enable CAMS members to interact with European colleagues. Once details have been received from DEST the conditions of funding will be announced. The Research Director, Professor Steve Buckman, thanks all members for their input to the application.

Dr. Subhendu Mondal, recently graduated from the Atomic Physics Laboratory at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India, has taken up a postdoctoral position at the ANU Node, where he will be working on electron scattering experiments under the supervision of Professor Steve Buckman.

Professor Paul Burrow from the University of Nebraska, USA will be talking on Remote bond breaking by interacting temporary anion states at 11 am on Tuesday, 23rd October, in the Seminar Room of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering. Professor Burrow has been visiting the ANU node of the Centre from 3rd October to 1st November, to discuss research on electron scattering from biomolecules. Before returning to the USA, Prof. Burrow will also make a brief visit to the Flinders University node of CAMS.

On 16 September, 2006, on the island of Malta, an MoU was signed between CAMS and the European Research Network on Electron Induced Processes at the Molecular Level (EIPAM). The aim is to establish collaboration between the respective research networks through the exchange of staff, student training and formulation of joint research programs in the study of electron and positron interactions with atomic and molecular systems.

The first CAMS Workshop will take place from 30th November - 2nd December, 2006, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast at the Surfair Resort, Marcoola. All CAMS researchers and students are strongly encouraged to attend. Details of the program can be found on the workshop page. Note that the Workshop immediately precedes the AIP Congress in Brisbane.

CAMS extends a warm welcome to Professor Greg Karwasz who is visiting the ANU node of CAMS for 6 weeks. Professor Karwasz will collaborate with both electron and positron scattering activities during his visit.

Philip Bartlett of Murdoch University has been awarded the 2005 Bragg Gold Medal for Excellence in Physics for the most outstanding PhD thesis produced by a physics student over the previous 13 months nationally. It is only the second time a winner has come from Western Australia, and is Murdoch University's first. Philip was supervised by CAMS Chief Investigators Professors Andris Stelbovics and Igor Bray. Philip is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Murdoch University node of CAMS.

The official launch of CAMS took place on the evening of 7th June 2006, attended by some sixty invited guests in the foyer of the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the ANU. The Vice-Chancellor of the ANU, Professor Ian Chubb, gave the opening address while the CEO of the Australian Research Council, Peter Høj, carried out the official opening of the Centre. Earlier in the day, Centre Investigators took part in an informal workshop during which they reported on research activities at the various nodes. The Centre Executives met on the following day.

CAMS Executive Member and Flinders University Node Director, Dr Michael Brunger, accompanied by Professor Antonio Zecca, today met Professor Bassi, the Rector of the University of Trento, Italy. Dr Brunger and Professor Bassi discussed possible future CAMS-Trento collaborative initiatives, as well as issues dealing with the Treaty of Bologna

The date for the official launch of CAMS has been confirmed as 7th June, 2005. The launch will be held at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the ANU from 4.30 to 6pm, with the CEO of the Australian Research Council, Peter Høj carrying out the official opening of the Centre.

The Chief Operations Officer attended a Business Function hosted by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie at Parliament House in Brisbane on 19th April, and discussed the possible role of CAMS in the context of the Smart State inititiave.

Prof. Gleb Gribakin from the Queens University, Belfast will be talking on Positron Annihilation in Molecules at the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, ANU, on 20 April

The date for the official launch of CAMS has been announced as 7th June, 2005. The launch will be held at the ANU from 4 to 6pm. Expected guests include the Minister for Education, Julie Bishop and CEO of the Australian Research Council, Peter Høj.

A number of job opportunities are now open for applications within CAMS. Jobs are spread across the different nodes and different research areas of the Centre. Please see the jobs page for more information.

The first positrons have been trapped at the APBF. With the arrival of the new positron source last month, rapid progress has been made. Optimisation of the positron trap is continuing, but all the signs are very promising that a high resolution positron beam will be available in the next few weeks. Once a satisfactory beam is available, the first positron scattering experiments will be able to commence. For more information, see the APBF section of this site.

CAMS would like to welcome Alena Almassy on board as our new administrative assistant. Alena will be working with the COO, Professor Robert Robson and Director, Professor Steve Buckman.

The new positron source for the APBF has arrived and was installed today. After some initial testing, the positron trap stage will brought online in the near future. For more information on this experiment see the APBF section of this website.

CAMS is featured as the lead story in the current edition of Australasian Science magazine. The November/December edition of the magazine is available in newsagents now.

The workshop "Antimatter Matters" to open the APBF finished last week and was proclaimed a great success by all participants. The workshop brought together Australian and International scientists from a broad range of disciplines to discuss positron research and applications. Contact the CAMS Chief Operating Officer for a CD containing the conference proceedings.

Prof. Robert Robson has been appointed as the Chief Operating Officer for CAMS. His initial appointment is for one year, commencing on 21st November.

Professor Stephen Buckman of the Australian National University has been confirmed as the Director of CAMS, with Dr. Anita Hill of CSIRO and Professor Igor Bray as the Deputy Directors.

Today the funding for the ARC Centres of Excellence was announced, with CAMS one of the successful applicants. CAMS has received $7 million over 5 years from the ARC, with partner contributions totalling a little over $3 million. The picture shows the Minister for Science, Brendan Nelson (left), congratulating Professor Stephen Buckman on the successful bid.