Stars & Planets Group Introduction The Stars & Planets Group is part of the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing. Swinburne University of Technology is in Melbourne, Australia. The interests of the group range from star and planet formation (including formation of molecular clouds, the dynamics and evolution of disks around young single and binary stars, the early stages of planet growth from mircons to metres, and the effects of planets on the evolution of protostellar disks); stellar dynamics and evolution (N-body simulations of star cluster evolution and destruction, formation of exotic stars and binaries); and binary population synthesis. The group currently includes researchers Dr Sarah Maddison, Dr Jarrod Hurley, Ms Annie Hughes and Mr Paul Kiel. We are inviting PhD students and postdoctoral fellows to joins us. The group collaborates with researchers in France, Switzerland, Canada, UK, the Netherlands and the USA. Facilities Group members make extensive use of the Centre's 300+ node Beowulf Clusters - (200 3.2GHz P4s, 32 3.0GHz P4s, 90 2.2Ghz dual P4s). We also make the VPAC (Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing) clusters, and the APAC (Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing) 125 Compaq 4 processor ES45 cluster. The group has a two-phase, MPI parallel dusty gas code for making planets, as well as various Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) codes for following accretion disk dynamics. They also make use of a single scattering radiative transfer code for making synthetic near-IR images of disks. We have rapid stellar and binary evolution codes for synthesizing large stellar populations and a N-body code for performing realistic simulations of star clusters. In addition we have various graphics and visualisation tools, as well as the Centre's Virtual Reality theatre for 3D visualisation. The group has successfully been awarded observing time on the Australia Telescope Compact Array millimetre interferometer, the Mopra millimetre telescope, the Chandra X-ray satellite and the Hubble Space Telescope. Grants The Group has been successful in competing for both internal and external grants. Grants received by the Group from the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing and the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing total more than $300,000 to date and over 35,000 supercomputer CPU hours. Research Planet Formation Massive Protostellar Disks Circumbinary Disks Binaries Stellar Dynamics Links Swinburne SC APAC VPAC Compact Array, ATNF Gemini