Grace Lawrence awarded prestigious PhD prize

Centre PhD candidate Grace Lawrence was awarded the Royal Society of Victoria prize for Physical Sciences on Friday.

The awards aim to foster and recognise excellence in Victoria’s early career researchers and offer prizes in Biomedical & Health Sciences, Biological Sciences (non-human), Earth Sciences and Physical Sciences.

Dr Lawrence’s PhD was titled, “Dark Matter within Simulated Milky Way Analogues and the Subsequent Direct Detection Possibilities on Earth”.

At the presentation evening, Dr Lawrence explained the search for dark matter and how her research aimed to support the direct detection of the mysterious substance.

“The true nature of dark matter is one of the greatest modern mysteries of astrophysics,” she said.

"I was honoured to receive this award, acknowledging the hard work that goes into a doctoral thesis and celebrating exciting dark matter science and the incredible support afforded me by my supervisors, Swinburne and the Dark Matter Centre.

“The award was a fantastic opportunity to share and discuss my PhD research with an engaged audience and hone my communication skills. Listening to the other finalists across science fields left me inspired and confident that the future is in safe hands."

Dr Lawrence was supervised by Alan Duffy, Darren Croton and Chris Blake from Swinburne University of Technology.

Watch Dr Lawrence’s presentation at the awards ceremony (from 1.44)