The Governor’s visit
to UWA

16 September 2020

The Honourable Kim Beazley AC, Governor of Western Australia, was invited to tour the University of Western Australia (UWA) and visit the innovation and industry sectors that will be taking WA forward into the next Industrial revolution.

He was guided through the Quantum Science and Technology research areas in the Physics Department of UWA, and met with the world-leading researchers here who are developing translational outcomes and testing fundamental physics.

QDM director, Professor Michael Tobar and Research Associate Dr Ben McAllister showed the Governor through—

• the Rotation Lab, containing a precision rotation table to search for frame dependent speed of light violations. We have used this to perform the best test of Einstein Special Relativity.

• the Engineered Quantum System Lab with its two dilution fridges (the coldest place in WA, able to cool to a few thousandths of a degree above absolute zero)

• the Dark Matter Lab, consisting of the ORGAN axion detector, capable of turning dark matter into electricity—if we find it. It uses one of the most powerful dilution fridges available.