The Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) will honour eight astronomers with prizes at its Annual Scientific Meeting.

Four of these are affiliated with ASTRO 3D. Congratulations to the following:

Prof. Matthew Colless, AO. ASTRO 3D Chief Investigator, Australian National University. Winner of the ASA’s ELLERY LECTURESHIP 2024 FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS IN ASTRONOMY RESEARCH.

‘Building Australia’s ability to explore the cosmos.’

Australia’s leadership in optical astronomy is due, in large part, to the work of Matthew Colless over recent decades. As a researcher, Professor Colless has led pioneering work in constructing large samples of galaxies to understand their evolution and the large-scale structures they form, and to measure the amount of dark matter and dark energy. As a leader, he has ensured that up and coming astronomers have access to the best training and the best telescopes.

 

Dr Katherine Harborne, University of Western Australia/ICRAR. ASTRO 3D Affiliate. Winner of the 2024 EMERGING LEADERS IN ASTRONOMY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PRIZE – for outstanding contribution to the development of open-source astronomical software by an early career researcher.

‘A common language to describe galaxies.’

Katherine’s SimSpin software bridges theoretical and observational astronomy, allowing astronomers to directly compare simulations and real-world observations of galaxies.

 

Prof. Christoph Federrath, Australian National University, ASTRO 3D Associate Investigator. Joint winner of the ANNE GREEN PRIZE 2024 – for a significant advance or accomplishment by a mid-career scientist.

‘Making stars in a supercomputer’

Christoph Federrath’s research focuses on understanding the formation of stars in the Universe, a process that controls galaxy evolution and sets the initial conditions for planet formation. He has developed theoretical models and supercomputer simulations of molecular clouds, the birthplaces of stars. This involves the physics of turbulence, gravity, magnetic fields, radiation, stellar feedback and chemical evolution.

 

Prof. Aaron Robotham, University of Western Australia/ICRAR, ASTRO 3D Associate Investigator. Joint winner of the ANNE GREEN PRIZE 2024 – for a significant advance or accomplishment by a mid-career scientist.
‘Software that models the evolution of galaxies.’
Today’s galactic astronomers have to use multiple telescopes working at multiple frequencies to study distant galaxies and understand their evolution. Aaron Robotham has created ProTools, a powerful suite of tools that combines images from multiple telescopes across multiple wavebands into one complete model.
Tamsyn O’Beirne (formerly UWA now at Swinburne University) was highly commended for the Bok Prize for her Master’s research exploring the dark and low surface brightness Universe with WALLABY.
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