The charming specimens below are the current PSS committee. Elected by the PSS, it’s our job to run the society, listen to your suggestions, and help raise the profile of physics at the university. If you see us around on campus, feel free to come and say hello, ask us about the wave-particle duality, or furnish us with a hot caffeinated beverage.
Daniel Rodgers-Pryor – President
Abandoned at birth and raised by wolves, Daniel won his place at university through gladiatorial combat, and on the condition that he would stop hitting the chancellor. Dividing his time between three majors, Daniel can usually be found wherever coffee is sold or bashing his head against administrative staff. He one day hopes to put his education to use by disproving string theory, creating a playable form of quantum chess, and mastering Extreme Ironing.
He's the one on the right (we think)
Patrick Clearwater – General Secretary and Obstructionist Bureaucrat
Patrick has now successfully rigged the elections at no fewer than three General Meetings of the Society, and so retains his position as Secretary. Known mostly for his skill in confusing the University bureaucracy, he also occasionally appears in third year physics or maths lectures. He currently aspires to graduate before the University discovers he can’t actually do maths, and before the PSS discovers that he’s using it as a front for selling counterfeit gauginos on the streets of Minsk.
Angus McInnes – Treasurer
Angus is studying maths and physics, in the fourth year of his three-year degree, avoiding the real world for as long as possible. He enjoys having incomprehensible conversations with other people, and with his computer, and occasionally with himself. Angus joined the PSS committee by accident. He stayed for the sexy purple T-shirts. As Treasurer, his role alternates between hiding the PSS’ stolen treasure and hiding the fact that we don’t have any.
Joel Gill – Education Officer
Joel is studying to become a mathematical physicist, which makes him an outcast to mathematicians and physicists alike. He spends most of his free time having arguments about why the Ian Potter Cafe is better than Castro’s, and mourning the loss of his Xbox 360. Out of his university education, he hopes to be able to do mathematical proofs properly and understand string theory. All aside he is our Educational Officer, and despite all his eccentricities, he does a pretty good job.
Tayla McKechnie – First Year Representative
Emma Bland – General Committee Member, Immediate Past President
Emma resigned from her position as PSS President at the 2010 AGM after being promised an exemption from all subjects ending with the letter ‘s’ and an unspecified amount of ice-cream. Initially disheartened by her substantial loss of power, she quickly came to realise that she never had any power to begin with, and thus decided to carry on as usual. Emma is easily manipulated, and once had her dinner stolen by a 2-year-old. She is currently fostering a guide dog puppy called Zane, who will be signed up as a member of the PSS when he stops chewing the application form. Look out for a Labrador dressed in purple.
Daniel Flynn – General Committee Member
Daniel spent most of 2010 studying the dark arts over in the maths department, but now he’s back doing physics in a thinly veiled attempt to con unsuspecting Masters students into doing his homework. Daniel enjoys the consumption of alcohol, the moment when a bastard-hard physics problem suddenly makes sense, and the frequency with which these two activities coincide. Daniel can be found snobbing over coffee, making inappropriate comments in the third-year reading room and making excuses not to go to the gym
Daniel Thompson – General Committee Member
The last of a dying breed, Daniel harks from a time of double degrees, back before there were such things as breadth subjects. Entering his final year of his Engineering(Software) and Science degrees, he finds that university is almost impossible to leave, nor would he want to leave, if only he could convince them to stop all this assessment stuff the university is all too keen on. Be careful around Daniel, as he has seen almost every Science Fiction TV Series and Movie, and owns most of them on DVD or VCR, leading to long talks about the merits or science of any of them.
All committee positions are up for grabs at the Annual General Meeting (held during Semester 2). We welcome nominations for committee positions from students of all year levels
If you aren’t on the committee but would like to get involved with club planning, send us an email and we’ll add you to the committee mailing list.