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Information for New Staff and Students

Office Setup, Stationery and Equipment

  • Your supervisor or group leader should organise a desk and office space for you.
  • The Main Office staff will organise issue of keys and code numbers to specific rooms which you may need regular access (eg laboratories and lecture rooms).
  • Computer equipment can be requested through the IT office. More specialised equipment might have to be organised within the research group.
  • Stationery and office paraphernalia is available from the Physics storeroom, room 213. The key is available from the Main Office.
  • Office furniture can be ordered through the school manager Paul Harbon.

Office repair requests should be made to the administration in the main office:

Equipment must be ordered through the Storeman, David Young. For items worth $1000 - $30,000 you will need 2 written quotes and for items worth more than $30,000, 3 written quotes are required. If there is a sole supplier, approval from the Head of School is required before purchasing any items, via a waiver request. See details about reimbursement on the Administration page.

Computers, Email and the Physics Network

You will need a Physics account to use the computers in the School of Physics. The Physics computing account will be arranged by your supervisor, through Sebastian Juraszek (Ext.17688). Any password changes should be made in person to Seb.

You will also need a University MyUni or Unikey account to access university-wide restricted pages. This account is organised through the Information and Communication Technology service (ICT). You can call them on Ext. 16000 to organise a login. Alternatively, you can request Physics IT support.

If you are a new Physics computer user, your supervisor will arrange for an account on the physics server. Your supervisor will also look after the provision of a computer for use on your project.

If you are a member of staff and are taking a University computer off campus, then you must have the Head of School's permission, in writing, for insurance purposes. This letter should note the make and serial number of the machine/s.

There are several network drives on Physics computers. The 'Suphys' disks are for large storage, and the Home drives are for private storage, limited to 1GB per user. These are backed up. Local drives, on individual user's workstations, are not backed up.

Web addresses

In 2010 the University underwent a rebranding process. Part of this was a change in the preferred form of the university website addresses. For example, the old format web address http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/local/ has changed to become http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics/local/. The new format should be used in any published material, although both addresses will work indefinitely.

Staff email addresses

Email address were also revised as part of the University rebranding process. The result is a rather complicated set of email addresses for any staff member, although all can be aliased to a single account.

Your physics email (managed by Physics IT Support staff) takes the form

  • [first initial].[last name]@physics.usyd.edu.au (preferred), or
  • [your login]@physics.usyd.edu.au.

These are aliases for the same account.

Staff also have a university-managed address associated with their unikey account. For this account, the official University email address. is of the form

  • firstname.lastname@sydney.edu.au

This is essentially an alias for your [unikey]@usyd.edu.au account. This account is important because the University uses it to communicate with staff.

The physics and university accounts are inherently distinct, but many staff have forwarded their unikey email to the physics address and continue to use their physics email as their primary email account.

Student email addresses

Physics honours and postgraduate students will have physics email addresses with the same formats as staff addresses.

Students may also have two university email addresses. The older type is the form [unikey]@usyd.edu.au, for which the suffix @mail.usyd.edu.au is an alias. The new student university email is an outlook.com account with address [unikey]@uni.sydney.edu.au. This account is not linked with the old address, but forwarding can be set up. The uni.sydney.edu.au address is the one used for all student university correspondence.

Email Exploders

There is a webmail application to access the physics mail account, and email clients can also be set up. See the Email section of the IT website.

The physics school uses a mailing list structure of 'Exploders' to broadcast information by email to a category of recipient. See this page for a list of exploders and their use.

Please be aware of university policy on email broadcasts.

To access the centralised University web-email service see here.

External Computer Access

A server in physics is setup to accept SSH connections from physics users off-campus. See the 'Remote Network Logon' item in User Network Services of the IT page.

University Computers and Networks

There are computer labs around the university, popular with undergraduate students. A MyUni or UniKey login is required to use these. The libraries also have computers, which are either open access or require a library card login.

There are also open wireless access points around the university. To access resources outside of the university site requires a Virtual Private Network setup, to forge a secure connection to the university internet server. See the VPN setup site for specifics.

Printers, Photocopiers, Faxes

The Mail Room, room 216, contains a monochrome and colour printer, a fax machine, and two photocopiers.
There are also printers in various locations throughout the building, for various research groups. Ask your supervisor which is the closest. Each printer is labelled with its name, so it can be chosen from a list of accessible printers from the physics computers. For more details on printers see the printer sections on the IT webpage.
The fax machine in the Mail Room has the number 9036 7158. Faxes received on this are periodically placed into the pigeonholes in the front half of the mail room.

Printing and Media Services

Mail

Couriers

For local and interstate couriers, the School uses Zip Couriers. You can obtain the registration form and number from the Main Office. Staff should contact Zip couriers direct themselves.
For overseas couriers, the School prefers to use either DHL or Fedex. Again you can obtain the relevant forms from the Main Office, or contact David Young (ext 12711) for details.

Internal and external mail procedures

There are two deliveries and pick-ups to/from the School each week day. The first mail is picked up/dropped off at approximately 8:50 am and the second pick-up/drop-off is at 1:50 p.m. There are `outgoing' mailbags located on the wall in room 216 (internal - within campus, or external). You may post non-stamped business (external) mail here but please make sure you attach a School bar code on the back (barcodes can be obtained from the Main Office). For international mail you must also indicate whether it is to go by AirMail or OCS. Stamped personal mail may also be sent via the external mail system.

Please ensure the correct building code is included on internal mail addresses. Incoming mail is sorted into group pigeonholes in room 216. The maps directory and Online-Access Maps provide complete directories of University buildings and campuses, including map locations and references. If you require stamps for personal mail, or other packaging, there is a Post Office opposite the Holme building (on Science Road).

School postal address

School of Physics, A28
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006
Australia


Telephones

To make a call to another extension in the University, lift the handset, then dial the five-digit extension number (the last five digits of the eight-digit local number: eg 9351 7726 is ext. 17726).
To make a call outside the university, lift the handset, dial 0 (for calls less than 5 minutes) or 7 (for calls greater than 5 minutes – to minimise cost) for an outside line, then dial the number. Phones in student rooms do not have STD or IDD access, so if a student needs to make a long distance call for research purposes, please see your supervisor or the Main Office.
Please see the Telephone Services page for more information on the phone system, including outside lines and extensions.

You can find phone numbers for Physics personnel on the People@Physics search page. Also a printed School of Physics telephone book is available from the main office, which will list the same contacts.
Phone numbers for University personnel are listed on the much wider-scoped University phone directory.