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Tuesday, 21 May 2013

A young physicist from The University of Western Australia has won a prestigious Federal Government National Measurement Institute (NMI) Prize for his outstanding work in the science of measurement.

Dr Daniel Creedon was awarded the prize yesterday - 2013 World Metrology Day.  He is the third UWA scientist to win this award.

Dr Creedon was lauded by the institute for his ground-breaking measurements on a Whispering Gallery Maser Oscillator (WGMO), pointing the way to further improvements for the WGMO as a next generation ultra-stable frequency standard.

His work with the WGMO exploits the properties of iron (Fe 3+ ) which exists in minute quantities in a sapphire crystal.  Fe 3+ ions can be stimulated by resonant Whispering Gallery modes in sapphire to generate a microwave laser with a pure and regular frequency.

Dr Creedon was also recognised for having characterised crystal sapphire oscillators at temperatures approaching absolute zero, thus discovering a new operational range with the potential for even better frequency stability.

Dr Creedon is a member of the UWA node of EQuS - a multi-institutional collaborative Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence which studies and exploits the strangest features of quantum physics.

In 2009, UWA's Winthrop Professor Michael Tobar - Dr Creedon's PhD supervisor - won the NMI's Barry Inglis Medal, while UWA's Winthrop Professor Eric May and Associate Professor Paul Stanwix have been NMI Prize-winners.

World Metrology Day celebrates the signing (by representatives of 17 nations) of the Metre Convention on 20 May 1875.  The Convention set the framework for global collaboration in the science of measurement and in its industrial, commercial and societal application.  The original aim of the Metre Convention was the worldwide uniformity of measurement.

Media references

Dr Daniel Creedon (UWA Physics)  (+61 8)  6488 3716
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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