Rate My Professor Rodney Cross

Associate Professor Rodney Cross is an honorary staff member in the School of Physics, Faculty of Science, at the University of Sydney. He earned a B.Sc. and Diploma of Education from the University of Sydney, followed by a PhD in plasma physics in 1968. His early career from 1968 to 1996 was spent in the Plasma Physics Department at the University of Sydney, where he specialized in Alfvén wave studies using the TORTUS tokamak. Retiring in 2003, Cross continued as an honorary associate professor, shifting his focus to the physics of sport and forensic physics. His contributions have enriched both plasma physics research and the understanding of mechanical phenomena in sports.

Cross's research specializations include experimental investigations into motion, collisions, friction, pendulums, spinning tops, gyroscopes, and energy losses in impacts. In sports physics, particularly tennis, he has explored ball trajectories, spin generation, string properties, Hawk-Eye footprints, aerodynamics, and collisions. Notable among his works is the book 'The Physics and Technology of Tennis,' co-authored with Howard Brody and Crawford Lindsey in 2002. He has authored or co-authored 379 publications, with over 3,600 citations on ResearchGate. Key journal articles include 'Tennis physics, anyone?' (2008, Physics Today), 'Physics of the PhiTOP' (2019, The Physics Teacher), 'Energy loss in oblique collisions' (2023, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers), 'How to levitate an egg' (2021, Physics Education), and recent pieces such as 'Static friction on the feet' (2025), 'Pendulum Motion of a Conical Object on an Incline' (2025), 'Rolling to a Stop Down an Inclined Golf Green' (2025), all published in journals like The Physics Teacher and Physics Education. Cross has applied his expertise in forensic physics, providing pivotal evidence in high-profile court cases, including the Gordon Wood trial. His work demonstrates significant impact in physics education and sports science through accessible experiments and analyses.