Dr Ben McAllister shines in Rising Stars Award

The Centre’s Ben McAllister has won first prize in the University of Western Australia’s Rising Stars 2021 Awards.

Dr McAllister received the prize at an event for UWA’s early career science researchers, who showcased their frontier-forging research.

Fourteen of the university’s brightest scientific minds presented their research on various topics to an audience of curious spectators.

Topics ranged from dark matter to microbiology, sea-grass to soil science and mathematics to mental health.

The top prize was awarded to Dr Ben McAllister, whose areas of expertise include Physics and Science Communication. His presentation focused on one of the greatest mysteries in the Universe, dark matter. Dr McAllister is one of the key researchers behind The Oscillating Resonant Group AxioN (ORGAN) experiment. The experiment is described as a ‘haloscope search for high mass axions’.

“We know now that 5/6 of the matter in the Universe is made of some mysterious, invisible stuff which we call ‘dark matter’, but we don’t know what it is. UWA is the home of The ORGAN Experiment - Australia’s first dark matter detector - which searches for a tiny particle called an ‘axion’, which could explain the nature of the mysterious missing matter,” Dr McAllister said. 

Having completed his PhD in 2019, Dr McAllister is currently undertaking a project on the development of new quantum tools and devices, both for applications in future quantum technology, and in tests of fundamental physics. He plans to use his prize money to travel to conferences and engage with international experts in his field of research.

“The Rising Stars competition was a great experience. I’m grateful for the opportunity that it presented and grateful to the audience for choosing me as the first prize winner. Science is cool these days and there seemed to an interest in physics in the audience, which was great. The prize money will be very helpful over the next couple of years. I hope to use it to travel, both to attend conferences and to visit other research institutions.”

Rising Stars is an annual competition showcasing early career science research projects. Since its inception in 2015, the competition has presented a unique opportunity for early career researchers to present their research impact within a three-minute time frame.

 To date, Rising Stars prizes have provided support for 18 gifted researchers to accelerate their research and establish themselves as leaders in their respective fields.