Professor John Close completed his PhD in physics at the University of California,  Berkeley in 1991. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle from 1991 to 1994 and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow and Max Planck Fellow at the Max Planck Institüt für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen from 1994 to 1998. He returned to Australia and was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship in 2000. John was pomoted to Professor in 2008 and recieved a national teaching award (Carrick Foundation Award) the same year. He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. John was Associate Director (Education) in the Research School of Physics from 2012 to 2016. He is a former member of the ARC Panel of Experts, former elected staff member of ANU Council, and former Deputy Chair of ANU Academic Board. John is currently Associate Director (Research) in the Research School of Physics. John has worked with a variety of industries and government organisations on quantum sensing technologies and  applications. 

BSc, MA, PhD, SFHEA

John has had a varied career that has spanned three countries (USA, Germany, Australia) and five fields cryogenics, atomic and molecular beams, metal clusters, Bose Einstein condensation and quantum sensors. He has published collaboratively with theorists and on experiment producing diverse traditional and non traditional research outputs in physics, chemistry and biology. John's present research focus is in harnessing quantum mechanics to realise ultra stable, primary sensors for applications in diverse contexts. His focus has been the realisation of ultra stable gravimeters. In addition to quantum physics, John has had a long and very sucessful collaboration with biologists on the thermal properties of leaves, and was fortunate  to contribute to and be a coauthor on several influential papers in the field.