Instructors

Semester 2, 2008

• HET602 Exploring the Solar System: Kurt Liffman
Dr Kurt Liffman has a B.Sc.(Hons) in Mathematics from the University of Melbourne and PhD in astrophysics from the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University (Houston, TX). Kurt has worked on problems related to the formation of the Solar System at NASA's Johnson Space Center (Houston, TX) and AMES Research Center (Mountain View, CA). Kurt currently works full time at the CSIRO and part time with SAO. He is also a visiting scientist at the Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.
Around a decade ago, Kurt published a theory suggesting that the some major components in meteorites (and, possibly, the planets) were formed in the early Solar System by bipolar jet flows that existed in the first few million years of the Solar System. This theory has grown in popularity and has obtained some preliminary experimental confirmation. It is now one of the leading theories for understanding the formation of the foundation stones of the planets.

• HET603 Exploring Stars and the Milky Way: Chris Flynn
Dr Chris Flynn's research interests are dark matter and the chemical evolution and kinematics of galaxies. He obtained his Ph.D. from Mount Stromlo in Canberra in 1989, and subsequently drifted steadily north, working at the Astronomisches Rechen-Institut in Heidelberg, NORDITA and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, the Institute of Advanced Study at Princeton in the USA and at Tuorla Observatory in Finland, where he works in space based optical astronomy. He spent sabbatical years in Australia at Swinburne in 2002 and at Mount Stromlo in 2006. In his spare time he enjoys renovating wooden buildings while keeping an eye out for itinerant elks.

• HET604 Exploring Galaxies and the Cosmos: Chris Blake
Dr Chris Blake is a lecturer at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. He received his PhD in the U.K. in 2002, before spending time living in Sydney and Vancouver, and arriving in Melbourne in August 2006. His research is in the area of observational cosmology, in particular mapping out how galaxies are distributed through the Universe. He helps to run the WiggleZ survey which has been awarded 220 nights of time at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. The survey is obtaining spectra for 400,000 galaxies in order to measure the properties of the mysterious dark energy which is driving the recent speeding up of the expansion of the Universe.

• HET606 Tools of Modern Astronomy : Alister Graham
Dr Alister Graham is a Senior Lecturer within the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at the Swinburne University of Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. from The Australian National University's Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories in 1998. Since then he has worked for three years at the University of Florida's Department of Astronomy in the USA, and for another three years at the Spanish Institute for Astrophysics in the Canary Islands as a telescope Support Astronomer. He has published over 50 refereed papers about the structure and dynamics of galaxies, their dark matter halos and central supermassive black holes, and is involved in a prestigious Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Program.

• HET607 History of Astronomy: Chris Fluke
Dr Chris Fluke joined the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing in 1999. For five years, he led the Centre's virtual reality projects team, acting as writer, director and occasionally animator of stereoscopic (3D) movies that have been shown throughout Australia and internationally. His main research interests are in gravitational lensing and astronomy visualisation, particularly looking at new ways for astronomers to explore their datasets with advanced displays. He is a member of the Commonwealth Cosmology Initiative - a major project funded by the Australian Research Council that aims to enhance Australia's expertise in computational cosmology. Chris is a keen science communicator and astronomy educator.

• HET608 Introductory Radio Astronomy and SETI: Indra Bains
Dr Indra Bains has been a lecturer at the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing at Swinburne University since August 2006. Her main research areas of interest are in star formation, and AGB &post-AGB stellar evolution. She mainly works with molecular emission lines at radio wavelengths.

• HET612 Major Project - History of Astronomy: Glen Mackie
Dr. Glen Mackie is Lecturer at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology. He received a PhD ("The Stellar Content of Central Dominant Galaxies") from the Australian National University in 1990, and has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Carter Observatory (Wellington, NZ) and Victoria University of Wellington. His research interests include investigating the properties of Brightest Cluster Galaxies, as tracers of large-scale structure (i.e. distance indicators), and as probes of galaxy formation and evolution in the rich cluster environment.
His other research interests are multi-wavelength properties of galaxies, galaxy mergers and astronomy education. Glen has authored general astronomy articles in Sky and Space (Aust.) and North and South (N.Z.) and maintains web sites on Astronomy Resources and STaRS (Space science Teaching and Resource Site). In his spare time he practises topspin lobs, donates bait to fish and seeks the ultimate spiral torpedo.

• HET614 Particle Physics and High Energy Astrophysics : Paddy McGee

Dr Paddy McGee received a PhD in astrophyisics from the University of Adelaide in 2002. The subject was "Optical Studies in High-Energy Astrophysics", and involved CCD photometry of newly-discovered cataclysmic variable stars, as well as of active galactic nuclei. Since then, observations have been undertaken at the University of Adelaide Observatory, initially on CV's, but more recently on exoplanet transit candidates. He would like to see a tradition of optical astronomy established and developed at Adelaide. Since 2004, Paddy has been working half-time at the South Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing, in the area of scientific visualisation. He is also involved at Adelaide with astronomy teaching, from first-year practicals through to supervising later-year student projects.
Other interests include choral music (performing, and recording/producing concert CD's), as well as playing keyboards with local nano-group "Perestroika".

• HET615 Major Project - Observational Astronomy: Pamela Gay
Dr Pamela Gay is on the faculty at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, IL, USA. She received her PhD from the University of Texas in 2002. Her dissertation focused on the evolution of galaxies in different cluster environments, specifically addressing the Butcher-Oemler effect. Her current research focuses on variable stars, galaxy evolution, and how people interact with astronomy-based new media. Pamela is also a freelance science writer, with articles appearing in Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, and she co-hosts the Astronomy Cast podcast and writes for the Star Stryder blog. You can usually find a student or two hanging out in her office working on projects involving EPO websites, variable stars, galaxy evolution or all of the above. In her free time, she rides horses and is working to help her 1892 Queen Ann Victorian house recover from a bad mid-80s face lift.

• HET616 Great Debates in Astronomy: Karl Glazebrook
Prof Karl Glazebrook is a Professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology. He received a PhD from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1992 and has worked at Durham University, Cambridge University, the Anglo-Australian Observatory and the Johns Hopkins University. He does research on observational cosmology (size, shape, history and composition of the Universe), galaxy formation, assembly and evolution over cosmic time and astronomical instrumentation concepts. He is noted for carrying out one of the world's first large area near-infrared surveys, for developing the "nod & shuffle" observing technique in multi-object spectroscopy, for some of the deepest spectroscopy of the high- redshift Universe ever attempted and for developing the 'cosmic sound' technique for understanding dark energy. He has been honoured by being listed as a Highly Cited researcher by ISI, Packard Fellowship and the naming of an Asteroid (#10099).

• HET617 Major Project: Computational Astrophyscis : Jarrod Hurley
Dr Jarrod Hurley has a B.Sc.(Hons) in Applied Mathematics from Monash University and obtained a Ph.D. from the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge in 2000. He has worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and is now a lecturer at the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology.
Jarrod works mostly in the area of computational astrophysics, focussing on the evolution of stars, binaries and star clusters. Specifically he is interested in the link between these areas and performs N-body simulations on special-purpose GRAPE computers and supercomputers. These simulations show how star clusters evolve and look at the exotic stars and binaries that can be produced along the way. Jarrod has also looked at the consequences for planetary evolution in the dense environment of a star cluster. He is also involved in Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini observing programs.