Published on the 12th December 2024 by ANSTO Staff
The 2024 Australian Neutron Beam Users Group (ANBUG) awards were announced at the ANBUG-AINSE Neutron Scattering Symposium 2024 which was held at ANSTO’s Lucas Heights Campus in early November.
The recipients of the ANBUG awards included:
- Dr Joseph Bevitt – Neutron Award 2024
- Dr Liliana De Campo – Technical Award 2024
- Prof. Brendan Kennedy (University of Sydney) - ANBUG Career Award 2024
- Dr Rezwanul Haque - Young Scientist Award 2024
- Dr. Hayden Robertson - Outstanding PhD Award 2024
Dr Joseph Bevitt - Neutron Award
Instrument Group Manager at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering Dr Jospeh Bevitt was awarded the 2024 ANBUG Neutron Award for excellence in work carried out for more than ten years.
Joseph has made significant contribution working at ANSTO as a Scientific Coordinator Research Office Manager, Neutron Tomography Instrument Scientist and Instrument Group Manager of an Engineering and Imaging team.
An enthusiastic and passionate scientist and mentor, he collaborates with Australian and international organisations using pioneering neutron microCT techniques in the areas of palaeontology, archaeology and cultural heritage.
Joseph is the global leader in neutron imaging for palaeontology, attracting specimens from international museums for high-impact publications and global news stories.
Other achievement included oversight of the conceptual design, cross platform data acquisition and final visualisations for “The Invisible Revealed” exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum; implementation of a high-speed tomographic protocol on Dingo to reduce scan times and increase sample scannable heights.
Dr Liliana de Campo - Technical Award
The ANBUG 2024 Technical Award was given to Instrument scientist Dr Liliana de Campo for her dedication in optimising and getting the best techniques out of the neutron scattering instruments, the Small-angle neutron scattering instrument Bilby and Ultra-small angle neutron scattering instrument Kookaburra.
Dr de Campo assists users with challenging experiments helping them to achieve their goals. She has advanced neutron science with many contributions, including a contribution to a new on-beam setup for measuring phase changing droplets as novel ultrasound contrast agents for medical imaging and using UV illumination to stimulate photo-switchable soft matter transformations.
Dr Rezwanul Haque - Young Scientist Award
Dr. Rezwanul Haque, the recipient of the 2024 ANBUG Young Scientist award is an experienced and long-standing user of neutron beam facilities at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering. His PhD thesis, titled "Residual Stress and Deformation in Self-Piercing Riveted (SPR) Joints of High Strength Materials," relied heavily on neutron measurements using the Kowari strain scanner.
Since then, he has continued his research on residual stress in self-piercing rivets and expanded his studies by collaborating with other institutions and using different neutron instruments, further advancing his expertise.
To date, he has been awarded ANSTO merit access grants on 11 occasions, for use on seven neutron scattering instruments. His research has led to the publication of 15 articles across journals, conferences, and seminars. His work has had a considerable industrial impact, including a key finding on residual stress in ‘as produced’ rivets.
Dr. Haque was awarded the AONSA Young Research Fellowship in 2021.
Read more about Dr Haque’s research
Prof Brendan Kennedy - Career Award
Prof Brendan Kennedy of the University of Sydney was awarded the 2024 ANBUG Career Award for his significant contribution to neutron science. His scientific output includes more than 400 publications using neutron and powder diffraction.
He has mentored a long string of Sydney University graduate students and has been an excellent career mentor/advisor and supporter to many Australian academic staff and researchers within the broader neutron users community.
He was heavily involved in the design and construction of both the Echidna and Wombat neutron powder diffractometers at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering and played a crucial role in obtaining the original germanium monochromator for Echidna.
A former President of ANBUG, AONSA and AINSE, Prof Kennedy was Program Chair of the 2023 International Union of Crystallography’s Congress, and he was Chair of the 2005 International Conference on Neutron Scattering.
Dr Hayden Robertson - Outstanding PhD
Dr Hayden Robertson of the University of Newcastle has received the ANBUG Award for an Outstanding PhD for his research investigating interactions in complex media between solvents, salts and polymer brush coatings using state-of-the-art interfacial reflection techniques (largely at the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering).
The work advances an understanding of the interplay of ion identity with environment. His insights hold significant potential for enhancing the deployment of responsive polymer coatings. He also collaborated on software for the co-refinement of ellipsometry, neutron and x-ray reflection data, refellips.
