School Director's update

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue64 1–31 July 2025

July has been a quiet month at RSAA with many of us visiting collaborators and presenting at local and international conferences in the winter break.

I attended the ASA meeting in Adelaide where RSAA was well represented and included excellent talks from 7 of our students.  We were also well respesented in the 2025 Awards list. Honours student Li Yusen was awarded the Bok Prize for his Honours thesis: “Orbital dynamics in barred Milky Way: the dynamical and chemical origin of the Hercules stream” and Naomi McClure-Griffiths was this year’s recipient of the Ellery Lectureship for her expertise in atomic hydrogen gas distribution and evolution in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and its neighbours, the Magellanic Clouds. PhD student Bailey Martin won the prize for best student talk. Congratulations all!

Continuing RSAA's excellent performance in the 3MT this year was Qianhui Chen who was awarded Runner-Up and People’s Choice at the College of Science and Medicine final, and then was Runner up in the ANU 3MT Grand Final describing how galaxies get their wrinkles. Congratulations Qianhui!

Congratulations to Naomi McClure-Griffiths who has been appointed Chief Scientist of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Observatory. This is an incredible recognition of Naomi’s leadership within the astronomy and SKA community. As SKA Chief Scientist, Naomi will be the primary face of science to the SKA science community, the SKAO Council, and responsible for actively shaping the Observatory science strategy. She will champion the scientific capabilities and accomplishments of the SKA Observatory. 

I am also delighted to report that Eduardo Triffoni has been elected a Corresponding Member for the International Academy of Astronautics. The International Academy of Astronautics is an independent non-governmental organisation recognised by the United Nations which brings together the world’s foremost experts in the disciplines of astronautics on a regular basis to recognise the accomplishments of their peers, explore and discuss cutting-edge issues in space research and technology, and provide direction and guidance in the non-military uses of space and the ongoing exploration of the solar system. I am sure the School will join me in congratulating Eduardo on this well deserved recognition. 

The Mid-Career Industry Fellowship outcomes were also announced by the ARC during July, and in excellent news Tony Travouillon was successful for his program on additive manufacturing for the Wide Field Spectroscopic Telescope. It’s great to see RSAA success within this important scheme. 

After a great deal of work, the Astronomy Decadal Plan 2026 – 2035 was officially launched at the 2025 ASA in Adelaide. Our thanks particularly to the editorial board including Michael Ireland on this document that will inform policy and investment decisions into the future. If you have not done so already I encourage you to read the plan. 

Following the town hall meetings in July to discuss the change proposals within CoSM and the DVCRI portfolio, the consultation period for feedback has been extended by 2 weeks until 12pm, Thursday 7th of August. I understand that significant feedback has been received from across the College, and encourage you to engage. 

Please read on to learn of all the happenings from across RSAA this month.

Stuart Wyithe

Image: The heater coming to CSO! Inset: Qianhui Chen at the 3MT ANU final