The Adelaide University Atomic Clock Team has been presented with two measurement awards by the National Measurement Institute (NMI).

The Atomic Clock Team took out top spot in the NMI Measurement Impact award for measurement-related achievements demonstrating real-world impact, and top spot also in the People’s Choice award.

The team was among seven finalists who showcased their work during the awards ceremony, held during National Science Week, at which the audience voted for their favourite for the People’s Choice award.

The team — which comprises 10 core early-career researchers and engineers, who have been working to develop alternative secure, independent precise sources of time for Australian Defence — was awarded the NMI Measurement Impact Award for its world-first portable, autonomous atomic clocks.

The technologies the team has developed hold the promise of providing assured timing signals in GPS-denied environments and of out-performing GPS-derived timing by many orders of magnitude.

The team’s portable optical clocks were tested on a naval vessel off the coast of Pearl Harbour during military exercises earlier this year, during which they proved to be vastly superior to current defence technologies. The clocks are the first of their kind to operate outside a laboratory.

The team was represented in the awards by Dr Rachel Offer, who completed her PhD in Physics at the University of Strathclyde, Scotland, and joined the Luiten Precision Measurement Group at the University of Adelaide in 2020.

“Metrology is the science of measurement, and that’s in everything we do. From cooking to medicine, in industry and at home, trusted measurement is key to getting the results we want every time,” said Australia’s Chief Metrologist, Dr Bruce Warrington.

“As technologies and industries advance, we need new ways to measure up to the changing world around us. The NMI measurement awards highlight the huge breadth of our field, and the incredible people in it.”