Professor Nicole Bell named Australian Institute of Physics president

University of Melbourne and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics Professor Nicole Bell has been appointed President of the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP).

The AIP is the national professional body for Australian physics, dedicated to promoting the role of physics in research, education, industry and the community.

This appointment recognises Professor Bell’s leadership and contributions to the discipline.

“I am honoured to represent the Australian physics community and look forward to advocating on behalf of our discipline. The AIP provides a key avenue to promote the value of science in general, and physics in particular, to government, policy makers, and the wider community.”

In her two-year term as AIP president, she intends to promote the importance of fundamental research.

“Physics is a critical enabling science. History tells us that many technological developments were driven by fundamental research for which the eventual commercial applications were not originally anticipated. It is essential that basic breakthrough research is well supported, so that we feed the pipeline of ideas that ultimately lead to broad applications.”

Professor Bell’s own research lies at the intersection of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology, with particular focus on dark matter and neutrinos physics.

She leads the Theory Program of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics.

Professor Bell joined the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne in 2007. Her previous roles include postdoctoral appointments at Fermilab and Caltech in the USA. She has held an ARC Future Fellowship and was a member of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Particle Physics at the Terascale.

She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and received the Nancy Millis Medal from the Australian Academy of Science in 2020.