School Director
Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue55 1–30 September 2024
The Mount Stromlo 100th Anniversary Symposium was a great success, with more than 170 colleagues and friends joining us at the Shine Dome for the seminars and for the dinner at the Hyatt. Recordings of the very enjoyable talks will soon be available alongside the program on the web site. In addition to various historical revelations, a highlight was the return of the Duffield Chair from its round-the-world journey with Peter Quinn.
On the night after the symposium we were treated to a very nice 'choose your own adventure' public talk from Professor Tamara Davis on The Dark Side of the Universe.
The Annual Stromlo Students Symposium, held in the Visitors Center was likewise a great success. Well done to Lindsey, Ben, Valentina and Sarah on the most successful MSSS yet with over 80 attendees. See Lindsey's account below!
In early September we welcomed the Provost Rebekah Brown, and the IEEE President & CEO Thomas Coughlin and colleagues who dedicated a milestone to Mount Stromlo recognising the important roles of engineers in the history of Mt Stromlo Observatory. It was very interesting to learn more about the history of instrumentation at Stromlo and meet many scientists and engineers who have contributed to its success.
In the past month the outcomes from the first of specialist promotions were announced. Congratulations to the following staff who were successful; David Brodrick promoted to Specialist SM2, Nick Herrald promoted to Specialist SM1, Brian Taylor promoted to Specialist SM1, Kyle Butler promoted to Specialist Level 8.
As previously announced, ARC DECRA Fellows were also released in the past month and I was extremely pleased to see 3 RSAA successes, particularly in the context of only 6 astronomical sciences fellowships having been awarded nationally. These include Noelia Martinez Rey whose project is titled 'Unveiling the full sky with advanced Laser Guide Star technology', and Amit Seta whose project is titled 'The Origin of Magnetic Fields in Galaxies.' Melanie Kaasinen, who will join RSAA next year has also been successful with her project titled 'Resolving Star Formation at its Peak.' These promotion and fellowship applications represent a significant investment, and I would like to acknowledge and congratulate all those who applied in this years' rounds.
This past month included the submission deadline for Expressions of Interest in the next round of Centre's of Excellence. Congratulations to Naomi McClure-Griffiths who has led the proposal for the compelling ARC Centre of Excellence for Cosmic Ecosystems. RSAA CIs are also playing leading roles on 3 other CoE EoI submissions. Good luck to all as we await announcements in early 2025.
As previously advised, Jin Xiao, our School Administrator, left RSAA at the end of September. Jin is relocating to Brisbane and has accepted a new position at Services Australia. Jin has been a valuable member of our RSAA administration team over the past three years and he will be greatly missed. We wish him all the best in his new role and in his future endeavours.
Please read on to learn about activities in what has been another busy month right across RSAA.
