Every Friday in July since 1968 the July Lectures in Physics have been informing and entertaining the public - each year, eminent University of Melbourne and visiting physicists present historical and up-to-the-minute perspectives on a current topic in physics. See upcoming July Lectures here, and view our archives below.
2021
Dr Suzie Sheehy: Working across boundaries: Insights from the pioneers of nuclear and quantum physics
2020
Professor David Jamieson: Physics of life: what do the laws of physics say?
Professor Harry Quiney: Molecule of life: imaging life's machinery
Dr Suzie Sheehy: Ion beams for cancer therapy: new technologies for treating inoperable tumours
Professor James McCaw: Physics of epidemics: helping to keep us safe
Dr Katie Auchettl: The elements of life: from supernovae to planets
2019
Professor Emeritus Anthony Klein: The physics of the Apollo Moon mission in 1969: Do astronauts obey Kepler’s laws?
26 July 2019
Dr Helen Brand: Shining a light on Solar system geology
19 July 2019
Associate Professor Roger Rassool: Oxygen in Physics: From the Moon to the FREO2 project
12 July 2019
Professor David Jamieson: Physics and the Moon - The double planet: the physics of the earth-moon system
5 July 2019
2018
David Simpson: Quantum Mechanics and Biology: What are the Prospects?
Associate Professor Nicole Bell: The Rise of Cosmology and Particle Physics
Dr Matthew Dolan: The Legacy of Stephen Hawking and the Prospects for the Great Reconciliation
13 July 2018
Professor David Jamieson: The Arrow of Time
6 July 2018
2017
Associate Professor Martin Sevior: Antimatter in space: the Alpha spectrometer on the international space station and the cosmological implications
28 July 2017
Dr Michele Trenti: The promise of nanosatellites: getting the University of Melbourne’s fast response telescope into space
21 July 2017
Dr Katie Mack: Humans in space: what are the human impacts of space travel and living on other planets?
14 July 2017
Professor David Jamieson: Methods for reaching extremely high speeds: what are the prospects for fast trips to the stars?
7 July 2017
2016
Professor Stuart Wyithe: Einstein’s Gravity - Black Holes, Dark Matter and Gravitational Lensing
29 July 2016
Professor Elisabetta Barberio: Dark Matter and Gravity - Searching for missing mass at Stawell gold mine
22 July 2016
Professor Matthew Bailes: Pulsars - Nature's naturally occurring gravitational laboratories
15 July 2016
Professor Andrew Melatos
8 July 2016
Professor David Jamieson
1 July 2016
2015
Professor Ann Roberts: Light and matter - Bending light waves for new technology
31 July 2015
Professor Stuart Wyithe: Distant light - Reading the signals from the oldest light in the Universe
24 July 2015
Dr Meg Urey: Prospecting with light - The search for supermassive black holes in galaxies
17 July 2015
Professor Ken Crozier: Nanoscale light - The surprising world of optical nanostructures
10 July 2015
Professor David Jamieson: Understanding Light - from the Arab scholars of the 11th C to Maxwell and Einstein
3 July 2015
Older lectures
2014
- Associate Professor Harry Quiney: The world in a grain of sand: a century of crystallography
- Professor Andrew Peele: The Australian Synchroton and you: how an MCG sized microscope is adding value to our lives
- Professor David Jamieson: Physics, Entropy, Energy and Climate Change
- Professor Hans Bachor: Physics research shapes our future more than you might think
2013
- Professor Hollenberg: The quantum atom as a new technology resource from quantum computers to ultrasensitive probes of the machinery of life
- Professor David Jamieson: The discovery of the quantum atom and its applications to hold, process and transmit information
- Professor Rachel Webster: The cosmological history of hydrogen
- Associate Professor Harry Quiney: From Moseley's Law to the molecular microscope - A century of x-ray physics, chemistry and biology
2012
- Professor Jeremy Molilo: Understanding the cosmos
- Associate Professor Elisabetta Barberio: Big Science at the Frontier - Facilities for answering big questions
2011
- Professor Ray Volkas: The superconducting universe breaking symmetry
- Associate Professor Andrew Melatos: Superconductivity in space neutrons, stars and gravity waves
- Professor David Jamieson: Absolutely No Resistance
2010
- Dr Jeff McCallum: The Solid State Laser Scanning Continents and computer chips
- Professor David Jamieson: The invention of laser from Einstein to hologram
- Professor Keith Nugent: New light on bio molecules the free electron laser
- Professor Stuart Wyithe: Laser in astronomy from guidestars to ripples in spacetime
2009
- Professor Reinhard Genzel, Max-Planck Institute for Extraterre: The supermassive blackhole at the centre of the galaxy
- Dr Michael Brown, Monash University: The Giant Magellan Telescope 400 + 10 years after Galileo
- Professor David Jamieson: Part 1 - Galileo's Invention of the astronomical telescope and his remarkable discoveries - moons, stars and new planet
- Professor David Jamieson: Part 2 Galileo's Invention of the astronomical telescope and his remarkable discoveries - moons, stars and new planet
2007
- Professor Lloyd Hollenberg: A Quantum Leap for Computers-quantum information on the horizon
- Professor David Jamieson: Breakthroughs, hoaxes, frauds and delusions - recent breakthroughs that weren't
- Professor Geoff Taylor: The Large Hadron Collider - our window on the big bang
- Dr Andrew Melatos: Hidden Mass in Cosmic Collisions - the first pictures of dark matter
2004
- Professor David Jamieson: The 19th century world wide web
- Professor Ray Volkas: The ultra-violet catastrophe: the red hot emergence of quantum mechanics
2001
2000
- Professor Geoff Opat: Civilisation Transformed - The Impact of Quantum Mechanics
- Dr David Jamieson: The Promise of the Quantum Computer: New Beads on the Abacus
- Dr Chris Chantler: Quantum Electrodynamics: The most accurate theory in the world
1999
- Professor Geoff Opat: Gravitation - The Great Attraction of Physics
- Associate Professor Rachel Webster: Is the Solar System Doomed to Chaos
- Associate Professor David Jamieson: All Four Engines Out - Volcanic Ash, St Elmo's Fire, Aircraft and Electrostatics
1998
- Professor Geoff Opat: Atoms at Very Very Low temperatures - Wave Behavour and Quantum Super Sates
- Dr David Jamieson: New eyes on Mars - the physics of the pathfinder mission
- Dr Lloyd Hollenberg: The Physics of the Didjeridu
- Associate Professor Ray Volkas
1997
- Professor Geoff Opat: The Electron:The Centenary of its Discovery 1897-1997
- Dr David Jamieson: Einstein and the jumbo jet the global positioning system
- Dr Rachel Webster: The Discovery of Planets around other stars
- Dr John Ellis: Particles and the Cosmos
- Dr Jeff McCallum: The 50th Anniversary of the Invention of the Transistor
1996
- Professor Geoff Opat: How things fly, why boomerangs comeback
- Dr David Jamieson: Physics Gymnasium Einstein's Theory of Relativity
- Dr Anne Roberts: Lasers from atoms to the operating theatre
1995
- Dr David Jamieson: Light without heat luminescence in moonlight video screens and other scenarios
- Dr Rachel Webster: Just how much matter is there in the Universe