Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing

• Internal
• Swinburne Astronomy Online
• Supercomputing

Potential PhD Topics

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PhD Supervisors

Below are listed those CAS staff who may be currently looking for PhD students.

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PhD Projects

The following projects have guaranteed funding

• Exploring common evolutionary pathways for the formation of long-period transients (LPTs) and fast radio bursts (FRBs)
  (with Prof. Jarrod Hurley and Prof. Adam Deller)

The following projects are conditional on winning a competitive scholarship

• Assembling Mass in the Dusty Cosmic Web
  (with A. Prof. Michelle Cluver and Prof. Edward N Taylor)

• The Deeper, Wider, Faster program: Discovering the fastest bursts in the Universe
  (with Prof. Jeff Cooke)

• Discovering and doing science with the most distant supernovae
  (with Prof. Jeff Cooke)

• Galactic Outflows and Galaxy Quenching
  (with Dr. Rebecca Davies)

• Project MINERVA: what lies beneath?
  (with Prof. Karl Glazebrook)

• Galaxy Structure and massive black holes
  (with Prof. Alister Graham)

• Axion Dark Matter Detection
  (with Dr. Ben McAllister)

• Cosmic Fireworks: Machine Learning for Transients
  (with Dr. Anais Moller)

• Exploring Supernovae with the Rubin Observatory
  (with Dr. Anais Moller)

• Do the fundamental constants of nature actually vary?
  (with Prof. Michael Murphy)

• Uncovering the nature of very fast optical flashes
  (with Dr. Sara Webb and Prof. Jeff Cooke)

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Project Descriptions

The following projects have guaranteed funding

Supervisors: Prof. Jarrod Hurley and Prof. Adam Deller

This project offers an exceptional PhD opportunity at the forefront of computational and radio astronomy, tackling some of the most exciting open questions in astrophysics. Long period transients (LPTs) challenge our understanding of neutron stars, magnetars, and radio emission physics, with direct implications for fast radio burst (FRB) and compact object evolution. You will interface a multiwavelength dataset of the latest LPT discoveries with cutting-edge population synthesis simulations performed on the high-performance computing (HPC) facilities at Swinburne to unearth the true nature of LPTs. LPTs are a new class of object characterised by slowly flashing bursts of intense radio waves from deep within the Milky Way. They bear many similarities to the pulses from the well-known radio pulsars - albeit with longer duration - which hints at a compact object, e.g. neutron star, origin. They also have similarities to another exciting phenomenon, the highly energetic FRBs. Through this project we will be discovering new LPTs and can aim to understand what produces LPTs, where they are born, whether our Galaxy hosts hundreds or millions of them, and to explore the potential connection between LPTs and FRBs. This is where binary population synthesis comes in - a powerful tool that combines our knowledge of how stars evolve with our best understanding of the physics involved when stars interact within binary systems, to model evolution pathways for stellar and binary phenomena. In this project you will be involved with taking an existing proven binary population synthesis package, upgrading aspects related to massive star evolution and the physics of interacting stars relating to potential LPT and FRB evolution pathways, and then aim to: 1) generate large-scale synthetic binary populations and explore evolutionary pathways that could lead to the formation of LPTs and FRBs; 2) predict their formation rates and expected numbers in the Galaxy; and 3) turn this around and use the new constraints provided by the LPT and FRB observed populations to improve our models of massive stars and binary evolution. Through this project you will gain hands-on experience with world-class facilities like the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope, work with high-precision data, become proficient at operating in a HPC environment, develop your software skills, and contribute to high-impact discoveries in a rapidly advancing field. This project has guaranteed funding (including travel) through an ARC Discovery Project.

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* The following projects are conditional on winning a competitive scholarship

Supervisors: A. Prof. Michelle Cluver and Prof. Edward N. Taylor

The 4MOST Hemisphere Survey is a 15 million AUD spectroscopic redshift survey led out of CAS (P.I. Michelle Cluver, Edward Taylor) which will generate the rigorous statistics required to fully explore the galaxy property–environment connection. However, an understanding of how dust measurements map to properties such as dust content, dust density and dust temperature is crucial for tracing the interstellar medium conditions of galaxies. Without this, an understanding of how star formation and its efficiency (or lack thereof) is connected to HI reservoirs will remain elusive.

This project will lead the effort in 4HS to use existing and new dust measurements to map the interstellar medium properties of galaxies to their evolutionary state. Thanks to a proprietary “gold standard” data set, this kind of pioneering investigation is possible for the first time and will provide a benchmark for future investigations of dust content. This project will use our group’s expertise in WISE mid-infrared research and proprietary data to explore the relationship between dust properties and environment, first in the nearby 2MRS Cosmic Web, and then extended to the 4HS Cosmic Web.

Supervisors: Prof. Jeff Cooke

The Swinburne-led Deeper, Wider, Faster (DWF) program is the world’s first all-wavelength program designed to detect and follow up the fastest transients in the Universe. Fast transients include fast radio bursts, supernova shock breakouts, UV bursts from Type Ia explosions hitting heir companion stars, all types of gamma-ray bursts, kilonovae, and many other events, including the potential discovery of unknown classes. DWF is the world's largest collaboration of telescopes, with over 90 major observatories located on every continent and in space and operating at all wavelengths. For any given operational run, DWF coordinates roughly 10-15 wide-field radio through gamma-ray telescopes to observe the same fields at the same time. Telescopes, such as Parkes and ASKAP (radio), CTIO DECam (optical), Astrosat (UV/X-ray), HXMT and Einstein Probe (X-ray), and NASA Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory (UV/X-ray/gamma-ray). These data are processed in real time and transients are identified within minutes of their outbursts throughout the nights in our Swinburne Mission Control room. Our fast transient identification enables DWF-coordinated minutes-later spectroscopic and imaging follow-up observations before the events fade using the world’s largest telescopes, such as Keck, the VLT, Gemini, SALT, and the AAT (optical), ATCA (radio), and NASA Swift (high-energy), among others. Finally, our network of 1-2 metre-class telescopes worldwide provide imaging and spectroscopy to monitor slower-evolving events. The student will analyse DWF's unique multi-wavelength dataset in search of fast transients, supernova shock breakouts, and/or UV bursts from Type Ia explosions hitting heir companion stars to produce leading science. Depending on the student's interests and experience, the project will involve (1) developing techniques to search the deep, fast-cadenced optical dataset, (2) searching and cross-matching transients in the multi-wavelength datasets, and (3) enhancing transient discovery and analysis by progressing data visualisation and data sonification techniques. Project aims include extending our knowledge of known fast transient types to characterise the fast transient Universe for Rubin LSST and other upcoming deep surveys, and/or to provide long sought-after information on the progenitors, physics, environments, and explosion mechanisms of all types of supernovae.

Supervisor: Prof. Jeff Cooke

The Roman Space Telescope (Roman) is the newest NASA observatory capable of imaging large areas of the sky extremely deep in the infrared. Our program uses Roman to image a wide field much deeper than has ever been done before, called the Roman eXtreme Deep Field (RXDF). These data will detect thousands of supernovae in the very distant Universe (redshifts z ~ 2 - 15) and back in time to the supernova deaths of the very first stars to have formed after the Big Bang. These supernovae are brighter than their host galaxies and act as one of our only probes of this early Universe. They are very important for galaxy evolution research (i.e., for outflows, contribution to cosmic reionisation, etc.) and for stellar evolution (i.e., massive star formation, extreme explosion mechanisms, etc.). They are also important in absorption-line research, they hold promise as standardisable candles, and they trace the cosmic star formation, stellar initial mass function, and chemical enrichment, among other things. However, to use these supernovae for this science, we need to establish a supernova UV classification system, as we only have an optical system and all z > 4 supernovae are detected by their redshifted rest-frame UV. This project uses the RXDF data to discover these extreme events as a means to probe the early Universe deeper than before and in a new way. The project also uses the RXDF data, along with the Keck and Subaru observatory and James Webb Space Telescope data to study a crucial redshift range (z ~ 2-4) that enables us to obtain the rest-frame UV and rest-frame optical data of the same supernovae to establish the much-needed supernova UV classification system so we can do science with all the existing and future z > 2 supernovae discovered.

Supervisor: Dr. Rebecca Davies

Why do massive galaxies stop forming stars? One of the prime suspects is galactic outflows – powerful winds driven by stellar explosions and black hole activity that eject gas from galaxies into intergalactic space. By removing the cold hydrogen gas needed to form new stars, these outflows may play a central role in transforming star-forming galaxies into the quiescent systems we observe today. In addition to regulating star formation, galactic outflows redistribute heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen, enriching the gas between galaxies and shaping the chemical evolution of the Universe. Despite their fundamental importance, outflows are extremely faint and difficult to observe, leaving many of their key properties, and their true role in shutting down star formation, poorly constrained.

This PhD project will use state-of-the-art observations from facilities like the James Webb Space Telescope, the WM Keck Telescopes and ESO’s Very Large Telescope to characterise galactic outflows in the early Universe. The student will measure outflow masses and velocities and relate these to galaxy properties to test whether winds are capable of quenching star-formation. The student will join a vibrant research group at Swinburne, working alongside 4 HDR students and international collaborators. The project will provide international travel opportunities for conference attendance, skill development and networking.

Supervisors: Prof. Karl Glazebrook

MINERVA is a new Treasury imaging survey with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) (260 hours of time) that will cover 548 arcmin^2 of sky with NIRCAM in 8 medium band filters covering wavelengths 1-5µm (see Muzzin et al. 2025, arXiv:2507.19706). MINERVA has just started taking data and will enable the exquisite measurements of the spectral energy distribution of objects in the z>3 Universe (26-35 total filters) allowing the determination of accurate redshifts for 13,000 galaxies, uncovering hidden population of objects and enabling a search for novel, rare and unusual objects in the early Universe. MINERVA also includes extensive MIRI images at wavelengths 10-20µm.

This PhD project is to work with the Prof. Glazebrook, and the international team, on the MINERVA survey. This is a fast moving project and research areas will be flexible according to interest and starting time. Particular areas of interest for projects at Swinburne are (1) the search for ancient quiescent galaxies (objects like the one recently discovered by Glazebook et al. 2024 (arXiv:2308.05606) that challenge ΛCDM models) exploiting the superior spectral resolution of MINERVA, (2) measuring the morphological properties of massive galaxies from the JWST imaging and how it depends on their 3D environment determined using accurate photometric redshifts, (3) using AI methods to identify novel classes of object from their multband photometry (4) investigating the nature of ’NIRCAM dark/MIRI bright’ sources.

Figure: Demonstration of the power of JWST medium bands. Discovery of a z=15.4 galaxy by Asada et al. 2025 (arXiv:2507.03124). The top panel show the 20-band photometry (broad+medium) which shows a convincing spectral energy distribution for such a high-z galaxy (lower left panel). The photometric redshift determination is only possible with this level of photometry (bottom right). See Asada et al. Figure 1 for more details.

Supervisors: Prof. Alister Graham

This project will explore how stars are distributed in galaxy images obtained from both ground-based telescopes and satellites such as Hubble and Spitzer. The structure of galaxies reveals much about how they formed, how they are connected with one another and also with the massive black holes that reside in their cores. This knowledge will be used to pursue a number of exciting topics at the forefront of astronomy. A feeling for the type of research done with Prof. Graham can be seen in his Press Releases.

Image: Artistic impression of a black hole featured on the cover of Swinburne University's 2019 annual report. Credit: James Josephides and Alister Graham.

Supervisors: Dr. Ben McAllister

The nature of dark matter is one of the biggest mysteries in modern science – it makes up five sixths of the matter in the Universe, and is of unknown composition. It surrounds and passes through the Earth at all times.

Axions are a hypothetical particle, and one of the leading candidates for dark matter. Swinburne is building a new axion detector to try and measure small effects induced by dark matter when it passes through the laboratory, and shed light on the mystery. The kind of experiment we are building is called an axion haloscope.

The detector is currently being constructed and will be hosted at Swinburne. There is work to be done on various aspects of the project, from optimal detector design, to manufacturing and characterisation, to advanced readout technology, to control software and data analysis.

This project could focus on any of these areas, tailored to fit the skills and interests of the candidate. There is room for multiple students, and you will be working in a small team with other researchers. For example, this project could include aspects of mechanical and RF design, material science, computational modelling, software to control the detector and associated equipment, or on a pipeline to acquire and tease through experimental data for hints of new physics.

Supervisor: Dr. Anais Moller

The Universe is alive with change. Transients; astrophysical events that evolve over timescales of minutes to years; reveal the most powerful processes in the cosmos, from the explosive deaths of stars to black holes tearing stars apart. These rare and energetic events hold the keys to understanding the origin of the elements and the extreme physics of our Universe. We are gathering millions of transients with the new survey at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. This vast data stream presents a unique opportunity; and a significant challenge; to identify rare and extreme events such as supernovae and tidal disruption events, stars disrupted by a black-hole. This project focuses on leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to study these extreme transients. The student will work on adapting and fine-tuning models for the Rubin data stream, with a focus on multi-modal approaches that combine light curves, contextual galaxy information, and multi-wavelength observations (e.g., radio, spectra). The goal is to improve the identification and characterization of rare events, shedding light on their underlying physical mechanisms. The student will join Fink, an international collaboration with real-time access to Rubin’s transient alert stream, and will also benefit from access to spectroscopic and multi-wavelength data, and radio surveys. Prior experience with machine learning is highly recommended.

Supervisor: Dr. Anais Moller

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory just started a new survey of the night sky this year LSST, capturing millions of changing objects each night. This presents an exciting opportunity to study supernovae, explosions marking the deaths of stars. This project focuses on exploring the physical properties of type Ia supernovae and the galaxies where the supernovae lives. Type Ia supernovae are the explosions used to measure our expanding Universe, key to understand Dark Energy. However, we still don’t understand how these explosions occurs and the different types of parent stars they may come from. This project will focus on answering questions about type Ia supernovae origins. The student will join Fink, an international collaboration with real-time access to Rubin’s data stream. They will identify and study supernovae using Rubin observations, supported by complementary data from the 4MOST TiDES spectroscopic survey and other wavelengths such as radio. This project offers hands-on experience in time-domain astrophysics and the chance to contribute to a major international effort to understand stellar explosions and the evolving Universe. <\p>

Supervisors: Prof. Michael Murphy

The fundamental constants characterise the strength of nature's forces. Their constancy has been tested in laboratories to extraordinary precision, and they have been mapped across the universe. But new theories, that go beyond the standard model of particle physics, suggest these "constants" may vary where dark matter is highly concentrated, like the centres of galaxies, including our own. This PhD project will be part of an ongoing effort to map the fine-structure constant – alpha, the strength of electromagnetism – closer to our Milky Way's Centre. To measure alpha, we carefully compare spectra of stars near the Centre, about 23,000 light-years away, with very similar stars in our local region. We are currently observing these stars with the Keck Observatory (Hawai`i), of which Swinburne is a partner, and the Very Large Telescope (Chile). This project will be mainly focussed on analysing the telescope observations to measure alpha. However, it can also address issues of stellar astrophysics using precise spectroscopy as well. These details options will be discussed with the candidate. Further reading: Murphy et al. (2022, Science, 378, 634).

Supervisors: Dr. Sara Webb and Prof. Jeff Cooke

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Rubin) is transforming time-domain astronomy by detecting millions of transient events (objects that burst and fade away) across the sky. Hidden within these detections are fast optical flashes that may be an entirely new type of short-duration transient lasting only seconds to minutes. These flashes may originate from our Galaxy or distant galaxies, revealing previously unknown astrophysical phenomena, from exotic stellar explosions, such as the minutes-long repeat bursts from a new class of transient called Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transients, to counterparts to fast radio bursts. Detecting these fast and rare events requires advanced machine learning techniques capable of distinguishing genuine astrophysical signals from satellites, space debris, and instrumental artefacts.

This PhD project will develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence methods to discover and classify fast optical transients by combining the rich archival datasets from the Deeper Wider Faster (DWF) program with the live Rubin transient alert stream. The student will search for previously undiscovered fast transients in DWF data while building real-time, Rubin-ready discovery pipeline that can identify rare events as they occur. Working within international collaborations, such as the Fink alert broker for Rubin, the project offers the opportunity to develop next-generation AI tools while helping uncover a new population of fast transient phenomena in the Universe.