Comprising leaders from astrophysics, government, business and strategic partners in Australia and throughout the region, the CASAC contributes to the work of Swinburne and its partners by offering the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) and the Director of CAS its advice, expertise and experience relating to research translation and external engagement.

This includes matters relating to specific sectors, trends such as globalisation and technology, policy, research agenda, skills and training, and market intelligence.

Members of the CASAC seek to facilitate the achievement of Swinburne’s strategic research objectives by leveraging their professional networks, profile, reputation, experience and influence.

The Swinburne Research & Innovation Ecosystem, in particular the Research Institutes, Capability Platforms and the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing are the key focus of this Committee.

Our members

Anne Green is Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney. Her research career spans 30 years in radio astronomy, studying the structure and ecology of the Milky Way Galaxy.

She is a graduate from both Melbourne and Sydney Universities and was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow. Following a 15-year career hiatus, she joined Sydney University where she was Director of the Molonglo Telescope, the first female Head of the School of Physics and is now President of the Physics Foundation.

Previously, she was President of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Chair of Astronomy Australia Ltd and inaugural co-Chair of the Women in Astronomy Working Group of the International Astronomical Union.

She is a Fellow of the Academy of Technology & Engineering, the Australian Institute of Physics and the Astronomical Society of Australia, who recently established the Anne Green Prize for mid-career scientific achievement.

Profile TBA

Dr Ilana Feain (PhD Astrophysics) is an Astrophysicist and Medtech Entrepeneur. Dr Feain currently works for CSIRO Astronomy and Space Sciences as their commercialisation specialist focusing on the development of commercialisation opportunities from within their Technologies for Radio Astronomy group.

Her interests and expertise are in developing radio astronomy technology solutions for adjacent markets and she is currently focused on opportunities that build Australia’s embryonic space industry.

Dr Dong Yang Wu is a leader in the translation of innovative research outcomes into high-impact applications. She is globally recognised by industry, academia and government for her research in materials science, manufacturing and sustainability and her visionary leadership in developing and commercialising innovative research into high impact applications.

Her achievements have been recognised through numerous awards, including her selection to the prestigious Boeing Technical Fellowship. In her current appointment as Chief of Aerospace Division at Defence Science and Technology, she leads national and international research efforts to deliver game-changing aerospace capabilities.

Rajiv Cabraal is the legal and governance director at the nation’s artificial intelligence and machine learning hub, CSIRO’s Data61. Data61 is the largest data innovation group in Australia, with world class capability in information and communications technology, computer science and statistics.

Rajiv has over 17 years of experience in the legal sector and also extensive experience in relation to licensing and spin-outs, complex collaborations, joint ventures, alliances, and the establishment of major research centres and infrastructure. He has a Bachelor of Applied Science, a Bachelor of Laws, and a Master of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology.

Wayne is a renowned expert in the field of ICT and its application in industry and has had a highly successful career in this field over many decades. He currently works to support young ICT based start-up companies to innovate and develop ICT and related technology for commercial ends.

He is the National Chairman of the Pearcey Foundation. In 2017 he was awarded an AM for services to information technology. He has been highly influential in promoting the importance and growth of the ICT industry in Australia and in advocating for ICT skills in educational and vocational training.

Professor Bronwyn Fox currently holds the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) at Swinburne University of Technology. Prior to this appointment, Professor Fox was founding Director of the university's Manufacturing Futures Research Institute with a mission to support the transition of Australia’s manufacturing sector to Industry 4.0 - the fourth industrial revolution.

Demonstrating sustained commitment to supporting the growth of the manufacturing industry in Australia through targeted research, Professor Fox was previously one of the founders of the Carbon Nexus facility at Deakin University, which catalysed the creation of an industrial research precinct. Leveraging her specific knowledge of materials science and engineering, Professor Fox has built multidisciplinary teams to work with the manufacturing sector to ensure they are digitally equipped and linked into global supply chains.

Bronwyn is an internationally recognised expert on carbon fibre and composite materials and is Chair of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (Victorian Division), a Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (ATSE), a Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI) and a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Professor Brodie is Director, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University, and Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California SC. Much of her work makes use of the fossil record embodied in globular star clusters (amongst the oldest radiant objects in the universe) to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Although she is primarily an optical/infrared observer with an instrumentation background, she works closely with theorists, particularly in the areas of stellar populations and simulations of galaxy formation in a cosmological context.

Professor Brodie graduated from Imperial College, University of London, with a First Class Honours degree in Physics, leading to a career in trading refined petroleum products on the International Spot market. After completing her PhD in astronomy at Cambrigde University, she was awarded two prestigious post-doctoral research fellowships that she ran consecutively: a Harkness Fellowship at UC Berkeley, and a Chambers Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge University.

She returned to Berkeley with a career position in the Research Astronomer series and subsequently joined the faculty at the University of California Observatories, headquartered at Santa Cruz.

Professor Brodie has chaired numerous national and international advisory and scientific governance committees and is the founder and CI of a large successful international research group (SAGES: Study of the Astrophysics of Globular Clusters in Extragalactic Systems).

Our ex-officio members

Professor Karl Glazebrook is a Distinguished Professor of Astrophysics at Swinburne University of Technology and has been there since 2006. He has been the Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing since 2014. Prior to that he was a Professor of Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University from 2000 to 2006.

He known for his work on galaxy formation and evolution, for playing a key role in developing the “nod and shuffle” observing technique and for originating the Perl Data Language. (PDL). Professor Glazebrook received the Muhlmann Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 2008 for his work on astronomical instrumentation.

He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science for his research accomplishments in 2017 and has been a member of the Australian Research Council College of Experts and was awarded an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship in 2018.

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