Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Winners of the Nobel prizes were announced in Sweden on 4 October 2011 and this year the prize in physics was shared by three astronomers who discovered that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Professor Brian Schmidt from the Australian National University is one of the joint winners. His work is said to have changed the face of astronomy. The Montana America born Australian citizen will share the prize with his long-time friend and collaborator Professor Adam Reiss, an astrophysicist at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Space Telescope Science Institute. The first Australian to win a Nobel Prize in Physics since 1915, Professor Schmidt and his team discovered in 1998 that the expansion of space was accelerating. This holds out the prospect of a bleak cosmic future in which stars will eventually dim and bring about a new dark universe.

Professor Schmidt and his team were hoping to see how the universe would slow down over time because of gravity. But what they discovered was quite the opposite. The universe was not slowing down at all; in fact, it was speeding up. As a result of this work, he and his team reached a conclusion: the universe was doing the opposite of what science thought it would. To the ABC last week, Professor Schmidt said:

It certainly means that gravity as we know it is not operating in the universe the way we expect it … It would seem that what we've discovered is about 75% of the universe is the stuff we didn't know existed—which we now call dark energy.

Professor Schmidt sees the Nobel physics award as something positive for Australian science in general and hopes that his example will inspire others to give young people a chance in their chosen fields.

Professor Schmidt told the Australian that the work that he had done was made possible by the way that Australia does science. He said that he hoped that the award would show the opportunities that we have here in Australia to do great work. He said that the win is a celebration of the science that has been done here in Australia by astronomy and by physics as a whole.

Universities all over Australia are celebrating the recognition that science so rightfully deserves and the award for Professor Schmidt and his team will hopefully instil into students all over Australia the difference that they can make in a profession. His award certainly delighted both lecturers and students at the Charles Sturt University campus at Wagga Wagga. I know the groundbreaking work and effort that they put in on behalf of science and for Australia is well recognised and well appreciated.

Professor Schmidt, a popular lecturer at Canberra's Australian National University, is humbly continuing his teachings at the universities as students prepare for important end-of-year examinations. Students at his third-year astrophysics class at the ANU spoke of the professor's easy-going nature with some quite unaware of his involvement in the discovery, and this quote is from the Australian:

'You certainly don't expect your lecturer, who just appeared to be a normal lecturer, to win the Nobel Prize,' said 19-year-old Tom Juhola.

Pete Kuzma, 21, said, 'I had no idea that he actually did this work. To head into university and find out that he was the one who did this study, and that he's internationally renowned for it, was a very big surprise.' For Australia's 12th Nobel Prize and the sixth for the Australian National University, I offer my congratulations to Professor Schmidt and his team, to the university and also to science. Professor Schmidt said:

They say in politics that education and science don't win elections, but they are what make nations rise and fall. They are the engine behind Western civilisation …

When I first came to Australia 15 years ago, it was a well-off nation that was isolated by oceans from the rest of the world. Now we find ourselves a very wealthy nation in the middle of Asia, the place where the world's economy is booming.

I will continue to quote, because his words are extremely important and relevant today—certainly in today's politics:

We have to take this opportunity, which is really as good as Australia has ever had it, and ensure we get a lasting legacy for the next century.

Indeed we do.

The Australian article continues:

Speaking to the Australian exclusively ahead of the awards ceremony at Parliament House, he said that legacy would come only if 'we make our citizens the best educated in the world and from that, from strategic planning, use those people to progress science and technology.'

'Getting our wealth by digging it out of the ground is fine in the short term, but we need to add value and create things that we and the rest of the world want to use,' Professor Schmidt said.

'We have a great platform: we are in the right place geographically, we have the resources to do it and it's a matter of putting together a long-term plan of how to do it. It might take a very long time to sort out, but it needs to be done.'

On behalf of the Riverina, certainly on behalf of this parliament and the nation, I say again to Professor Schmidt: well done.

Sitting suspended from 12 : 21 to 16 : 01

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