December 19, 2017

Physics student finishes top of the class

Simon Meaney awarded University Medal for outstanding academic results

Simon Meaney’s time at the University of Wollongong has been defined by academic success.

Top of the class, with many high distinctions to his name, Simon has taken part in prestigious projects, travelled overseas, and complete his highly regarded Honours research, all while completing his Bachelor of Science Advanced (Honours) Physics.

His achievements were recognised during the summer graduation celebrations, held last week (December 13-15) at UOW when Simon received the University Medal.

The award is given to the highest achieving student across the entire undergraduate degree.

Professor Alexey V Pan said since transferring to UOW from the University of New South Wales, Simon has been at the top of everything the School of Physics has to offer.

“He has absorbed the subjects taught with a seeming ease, collecting many high distinctions along the way,” said Professor Pan, who was Simon's supervisor.

During his degree, Simon visited Japan, along with other physics students, to explore a range of state-of-the-art cancer treatment facilities, in a tour organised by Professor Anatoly Rosenfeld of UOW’s Centre for Medical and Radiation Physics.

Last summer, Simon spent his days at UOW’s Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, with a Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences Summer Scholarship.

He then embarked on his Honours year with the Thin Film Technology group at ISEM.

During his Honours year, Simon mastered brilliant hands-on experimental skills and in-depth knowledge in the highly weighted Honours research project component.

The research project, titled “Conductive Two-Dimensional Electron Gas at the Interface of Two Insulating Oxides", which was supervised by Professor Pan, explores the basis for the two dimensional (nearly atomically thin) future electronics.

Simon's work contributed to an invited presentation given at the 2017 Gordon Godfrey Workshop on "Spins and Strong Electron Correlations" at UNSW in October.

The result of his work will also be soon submitted to an international journal for a publication.

Simon will now undertake a PhD after he was awarded a scholarship to continue his work at UOW.

Pictured: Simon Meaney with Professor Alexey V Pan.