Welcome!
All you wanted to know about James but were afraid to ask.

Work and Research I have just returned to Swinburne after spending 9 months as a senior research analyst in a hedge fund in the city of Melbourne. I am now working with Chris Power, Chris Fluke and Jeremy Bailin on a Study of the Cosmological Reionisation of the Universe By Simulation (SCRUBS).

B.S. (Before Swinburne) I did my PhD at Monash University. I then spent three years as a postdoctoral fellow at Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics and then 14 months at the ANU Astrophysical Theory Centre (Australia). From then until September 2002 I was first a postdoctoral fellow and then a Lecturer in Mathematical Modelling in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester. There I was a member of the Theoretical Astrophysics Group, and was also cross-appointed to the Mathematical Modelling Centre.

Postgraduate Students My first foray into the world of postgraduate supervision was to be the associate supervisor to Michael Truss at Leicester. He took up a PPARC fellowship at St Andrews before moving to Durham. I was then external advisor to Kathy Manson (with Dayal Wickramasinghe of ANU). Kathy's thesis was passed in 2005. I externally advised the thesis of Laure Barriere whilst she was at Ecole Normale Superieure, Lyon. She is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. I was also external advisor of Steve Foulkes (his principal supervisor was Carole Haswell of Open University, UK). At Swinburne I was the postgraduate coordinator for the centre from 2004-2006 and still share a student, Paul Kiel. Paul is using a rapid binary evolution code to synthesize populations of exotic binaries for our galaxy. Paul's principal advisor is Jarrod Hurley, whilst Matthew Bailes is his other associate supervisor.

Oh and I spend quite a deal of time either on the hockey field, on the sideline (or once last year behind the net) with Monash University Hockey Club.
In 2003 I coached the Mens Second XI in Pennant C to third place.
In 2004 I was player/coach of the Mens Third XI in Pennant D (finished sixth).
In 2005 I was the umpiring coordinator for the men's teams (which meant I had to behave!).

My wife, Louise and I have started an astronomy public outreach business Blueshift Education. We also have our own home page with lots of pictures of our son Sam.


Dr James R. Murray
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
Swinburne University of Technology
PO Box 218
Hawthorn
Victoria 3122
Australia
Fax: 03 9214 8797