Professor Peter Drummond from UQ's School of Physical Sciences has been awarded the Moyal Medal for 2007.
The Moyal Medal is awarded by The Department of Mathematics at Macquarie University in honour of Professor Joe Moyal, one of Australia's most remarkable scientists.
“I am honoured to be named the recipient of the Moyal Medal for 2007. Moyal was a great mathematician, physicist and statistician. His pioneering work inspired many of the important techniques that physicists use today,” Professor Drummond said.
The Medal is awarded annually by Macquarie University to scientists for their distinguished contributions to research on mathematics, physics or statistics.
Recipients of the award deliver a lecture on their area of research. Professor Drummond’s lecture is titled From quantum fields to ecosystems: dynamics on extended phase-spaces and will take place at Macquarie University on November 9 at 7pm.
The series of lectures is aimed to highlight and stimulate further the interactions between the disciplines of mathematics, physics and statistics as a response to and an acknowledgement of the interdependence of these fields. The lectures are accessible to graduate students and all are welcome to attend.
Professor Drummond is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society. He was awarded the Massey Medal of AIP/IOP in 2004, and will shortly take up an invited Professor award in Paris at Ecole Normale Superieure, France's leading science university.
Professor Drummond is the second recipient from The University of Queensland following in the footsteps of his colleague Professor Gerard Milburn.
Other recipients have included Professor Joe Gani (Statistics, ANU) in 2000, Professor Gerard Milburn (Physics, University of Queensland) in 2001, Professor Alan McIntosh (Mathematics, ANU) in 2002, Professor Terry Speed (Statistics, UC Berkeley and WEHI Melbourne) in 2003, Professor Denis Evans (Physics, ANU) in 2004, Professor Bob Anderssen (Mathematics, CSIRO, Canberra)in 2005, and Professor Eugene Seneta (Statistics, Sydney University) in 2006.
Professor Moyal’s insights into the interaction between mathematics, physics and statistics led him to make contributions to these disciplines which have had far-reaching ramifications in all three fields.
The Moyal formalism which he introduced in 1949 is being developed today in physics as the Moyal quantum mechanics.
For more information about the Moyal Medal and Lecture Series visit www.maths.mq.edu.au/medal/lecture2007.
Media: For further information about Professor Peter Drummond contact Nelle Ross at UQ on (07) 3346 9935.
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