Director's Message

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue41 1–30 June 2023

Welcome to the first Lunations of Winter.  This past month I enjoyed discovering more of the mountain on an extensive tour with Howard, and travelled to Fremantle for the ASTRO 3D science meeting where RSAA astronomers presented a range of excellent talks. I also attended the CGA strategy day at Mt Stromlo. This was a great opportunity to connect with CGA colleagues and hear about the progress and vision for Gravitational Wave Astrophysics at ANU. The College featured a story on the automation of the 2.3m and role of SSO telescopes in follow up to coincide with the now commenced LIGO Observing run 4. We also had a surprise visit from the ANU Chancellor Julie Bishop who greatly enjoyed the MSO environs and was highly engaged in the excellent presentations of our range of science and technology.

This month there has been excellent recognition for RSAA scientists.  Katie Grasha was named ANU HDR Supervisor of the Month, for excellence and dedication in Higher Degree Research (HDR) supervision. In addition there were two significant awards announced for recent ANU alumni. James Gilbert was named ‘Engineer of the Year’ as part of the 2023 Australian Space Awards. Impressively, Piyush Sharda the winner of the IAU Division H PhD prize! The IAU PhD Prize recognises the outstanding scientific achievements of astronomy PhD students around the world and was awarded to Piyush for his thesis on “The role of metals from molecular clouds to galactic discs”.

A reminder that academic promotions are currently open and are due by Monday, July 31. For those thinking about promotion, please don’t hesitate to speak to your supervisor or myself if you have questions. Resources are also available at ‘Academic Promotion’ . 

Finally, I am pleased to announce that the Distinguished Visitor committees approved the funding of seven distinguished visitors in the second half of 2023. These are Prof Ortwin Gerhard (Max Planck), Prof. Magda Arnboldi (European Southern Observatory), Prof Roland Bacon (Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon), Prof Chiaki Kobayashi (University of Hertfordshire), Dr Domenico Bonnaccini Calia (European Southern Observatory) and Dr Ulf Seeman (European Southern Observatory). I look forward to meeting these visitors and learning about their amazing science in the coming months. 

Stuart Wyithe