Research

HI Surveys of the Local Universe: My main research interest is in surveying the Universe for Neutral Hydrogen (HI). I have worked on the HIPASS and HIJASS surveys in the past, and am now working towards the next generation radio surveys such as ASKAP, Apertif, and the SKA.

One of my main research topics is how different environments effect the evolution of galaxies. I use HI surveys to find gas-rich galaxies, and identify those galaxies which might be stripped of gas through external interactions. In 2009 I found for the first time, a relationship between the HI and X-ray content of groups (Kilborn et al. 2009). This is reminiscent of the relationship seen in denser galaxy clusters, although not as strong, but indicates that the group environment is important in pre-processing galaxies before they reach the cluster environment.

I enjoy looking for HI clouds in blind HI surveys - so far I’ve found quite a few including a couple in HIPASS (Kilborn et al. 2000; Ryder et al. 2001), one in HIJASS precursor observations (Minchin et al. 2005), and what I think is the most isolated non-star forming HI found to date, in the NGC 3783 galaxy group (Kilborn et al. 2006).

My publications from ADS can be found here.

I’m always keen to talk to prospective students, and collaborators - please feel free to email me!

Teaching

I teach in the Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO) course - currently I am teaching HET608 - Introduction to Radio Astronomy and SETI, and I have also re-written and taught HET603 - Introduction to Stars and the Milky Way.

Links

ADS    NED    astro-ph    sky-map    COSMOS    SAO    Blackboard