Director's Report

Published in the RSAA Lunations
Vol1 Issue1 1–29 February 2020

It has been a challenging start to the year, with the constant threat of bushfires and several weeks of smoke. Stromlo was fortunate not to be in the path of the hailstorm that ripped through the ANU Acton campus but, like the rest of the ANU, we are now grappling with the impact of the coronavirus epidemic on staff, students, and the University’s operations.

Amidst the (sometimes literal) gloom, however, there have been some bright spots. Congratulations to Lisa Kewley on receiving the James Craig Watson medal of the US National Academy of Sciences - the first Australian to win this prestigious award. Congratulations also to the RSAA recipients of ARC grants: Mike Ireland and Tony Travouillon won a Discovery Projects grant for ‘Linear Formation Interferometry’ and Anna Moore, Ken Freeman, Tony Travouillon and collaborators won a LIEF grant for ‘Exploring the Dynamic Universe with DREAMS’. In addition, Anna and ANU InSpace have been named as finalists for the inaugural Australian Space Awards, for Innovator of the Year and Academic Institution of the Year. Finally, Celine D’Orgeville has been elected a Fellow of SPIE and new PhD student Jonah Hansen has been awarded a Dean’s merit supplementary scholarship. There was also public interest in work at RSAA on space junk, NGS2 and GHOST for Gemini, and a vampire star!

2020 will be a big year for RSAA: it will see the first academic appointments arrive at the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, the conclusion of the Phase A study of the MAVIS instrument for the VLT, the start of work on automating observing with the 2.3-metre telescope at SSO, and much more besides.

Although there are many challenges ahead - some of our choosing and some imposed by the world - I am looking forward to an exciting and productive year!