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Winthrop Professor Michael Tobar knows the importance of time.

He’s involved in cutting edge research that involves measuring time to improve international clock technology, as well as undertaking space research to test the fundamental rules of physics.

In December, Professor Tobar won the 2010 WA Scientist of the Year award. On the same day, it was announced that he’d been successful in securing Australian Research Council funding to continue part of his work in experiments aboard the International Space Station.

Professor Tobar is an ARC Laureate Fellow with the School of Physics.

An experimental physicist, he specialises in frequency standards and quantum metrology – the study of measurement on the sub-atomic scale.

As part of his research, he works with UWA’s Frequency Standards and Metrology Research Group and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems. The Frequency Standards and Metrology Research Group aims to develop new frequency standards to improve the systems that underpin the world’s most accurate clocks and oscillators, and to use such precision tools to test the fundamental rules of physics.

He also co-developed the world’s most precise clock – the sapphire oscillator. Known as the Cryogenic Sapphire Oscillator, it measures time with unprecedented accuracy – plus or minus a second every 60 million years or so.

In accepting his award for Scientist of the Year, Professor Tobar paid tribute to his colleagues for their contributions and to UWA for supporting his research.

“Experimental physics is very expensive. Our international competitors and collaborators typically have budgets 10 times our budget,” he said. “Therefore, we have to be extra shrewd with our spending and clever in targeting and writing our research grants.

“Typically, the successful experimental scientist in Australia must punch beyond their weight, work long hours and be an extrovert among their scientific community.”

He also called on governments to continue to back pure research.

“I believe it is our duty as scientists to commercialise our work if possible,” said Professor Tobar, who has co-authored 10 patents.

“However, my real passion is for doing basic research such as testing fundamental physics and undertaking quantum metrology with our unique technology.”

Professor Tobar is a scientific coordinator for the European Space Agency’s ACES (Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space) project that aims to measure time aboard the International Space Station and also test Einstein’s theory of special relativity to investigate how time and space are related.

As part of that research, the Australian Research Council awarded $1.23 million in funding for Professor Tobar’s group to become the southern hemisphere hub for the Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space mission.

(By Tony Malkovic. Part of this story originally appeared on the ScienceNetworkWA website.)