Our people
The Macquarie University Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics has about 70 members including faculty, postdoctoral research fellows, postgraduate students, research associates and honorary associates. Macquarie University has recently acquired the lead node of the new Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO-MQ) which includes astronomical instrumentation design and construction as well as astronomical research. We are also in close proximity with CSIRO Space and Astronomy.
Astronomers
David W. Coutts
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Future Communications Research Centre, MQ Photonics Research Centre
I am the Deputy Dean Research and Innovation in the Faculty of Science and Engineeringa. From 2016-2018 I was the Director of the MQ Photonics Research Centre. From 2009 to 2012 I was Head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. I am a member of the Optical Society of America and the Australian … View full profile
Dr Joanne Dawson
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Jo Dawson (BSc 1st class hons UCL, PhD Nagoya University) holds a joint position as a Senior Lecturer in Astronomy and Astrophysics at Macquarie University and a Research Scientist at CSIRO Space & Astronomy (S&A). She was previously an ARC DECRA Fellow at Macquarie, a Bolton Fellow at CA… View full profile
Richard de Grijs
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Richard de Grijs obtained his PhD from the University of Groningen (Netherlands) in 1997, and held two postdoctoral positions (at the University of Virginia, USA, and the University of Cambridge, UK), before being appointed to a permanent post at the University of Sheffield (UK) in 2003. He joined t… View full profile
Orsola De Marco
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Devika Kotachery
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Richard McDermid
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, DataX Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Smart Green Cities Research Centre
Dr Matt Owers
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Matt Owers (B.Sc. (Advanced Physics, hons. class I) University of Wollongong 2003, Ph.D University of New South Wales 2008) is a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie. Previously, he held a Future Fellowship (2015-2019), a Super Science Fellowship at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (2011-2014), a… View full profile
Dr Stuart Ryder
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Stuart Ryder is an Adjunct Fellow with the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and a member of the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre. Previously he led the International Telescopes Support Office at the Australian Astronomical Observatory. Stuart works part-time as a P… View full profile
Dr Christian Schwab
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, Australian Astronomical Optics, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Lee Spitler
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, Australian Astronomical Optics
I am now heading space-related projects at the Australian Astronomical Optics, an application-focused department within Macquarie University.I get excited about pursuing creative ways to view the universe using new technology. I am principal investigator of the Huntsman Telescope, which uses off-th… View full profile
Mark Wardle
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Mark Wardle is an astrophysicist in the Department of Physics & Astronomy. He holds honours degrees in mathematics and physics from the University of Auckland and a PhD in astrophysics from Princeton University. After completing his doctorate, Mark held positions at the University of Chicago, No… View full profile
Daniel Zucker
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
I'm an observational astronomer, studying Milky Way and Local Group stellar populations as a key to understanding galaxy formation and evolution in general. I received my PhD from the University of Washington, and after postdocs in Germany (MPIA) and the UK (Cambridge), I joined Macquarie in 2009. I… View full profile
Daniel Terno
Professor
Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, Macquarie University Research Centre in Quantum Science and Technology, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Postdoctoral Fellows
Luis Carlos Bermudez
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Dr Birendra Pandey
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Fil Simovic
School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Postgraduate Students
| Name | Current research project | Supervisor |
|---|---|---|
| Theodore Anagnos, MRes Student tanagnos@lsw.uni-heidelberg.de | Using astrophotonics to design new components for future telescopes | Christian Schwab |
Jaime Andrés Alvarado Montes, MRes Student jaime-andres.alvarado-montes@hdr.mq.edu.au | Detecting exoplanets with the Huntsman Telephoto Array | Christian Schwab |
Taylah Beard, MRes Student taylah.beard@students.mq.edu.au | Gone with the wind: Searching for signatures of gas removal in environmentally perturbed galaxies | Matt Owers |
Sarah Caddy, MRes Student sarah.caddy@students.mq.edu.au | Uncovering the Cosmic Infrared Background with SkyHopper, Australia's first Space Telescope | Lee Spitler |
| Tiffany Day, PhD Student tiffany.day@students.mq.edu.au | Major cluster mergers as drivers of galaxy transformation and evolution | Matt Owers |
Caro Derkenne,MRes student caro.derkenne@students.mq.edu.au | Total density slopes of early-type galaxies through cosmic time | Richard McDermid |
| Amir Ebadati-Bazkiaei, PhD student amir.ebadati-bazkiaei@students.mq.edu.au | The Huntsman Telephoto Array: ultra-faint imaging of galaxies | Lee Spitler |
| Wilfred Gee, PhD Student wilfred.gee@students.mq.edu.au | Constraining Populations of Neptune-Mass Planets Around Early M-Class Stars | Christian Schwab |
| Greg Goldstein, PhD Student gregory.goldstein@students.mq.edu.au | The Distribution of Star Formation in the SAMI Galaxy Survey: The Implications for Quenching Mechanisms and Galaxy Evolution | Richard McDermid |
| Miguel Gonzalez, PhD Student miguel-angel.gonzalez-boliv@hdr.mq.edu.au | Hydrodynamic Simulations of Common Envelope Binaries | Orsola De Marco |
Shalmalee Kapse, PhD Student shalmalee.kapse@students.mq.edu.au | Stellar Population Characteristics in the Magellanic Clouds | Richard de Grijs |
| Blaise-Anthony Kuo-Tiong, MRes Student blaise-anthony.kuo-tiong@hdr.mq.edu.au | Ultra-stable infrared spectrograph to search for earth-like planets | Christian Schwab |
| Fergus Longbottom, PhD student fergus.longbottom@hdr.mq.edu.au | Using the Huntsman Array and the Hyper Suprime Cam to investigate the mystery of the missing satellites | Lee Spitler |
| Lachlan Marnoch, MRes Student lachlan.marnoch@students.mq.edu.au | Testing fast radio burst host galaxies for supernovae | Stuart Ryder |
| Tash Marshall, MRes Student natasha.mcfadden@students.mq.edu.au | Swish-Mapping H1 Clouds in the Galactic Halo | Joanne Dawson |
| Tommy Marshman, MRes Student tommy.marshman@students.mq.edu.au | Applying a GPU based pulsar searching pipeline on a new Parkes Galactic Plane survey | Joanne Dawson |
| Stephen McAndrew, PhD Student stephen.mcandrew@mq.edu.au | Structure of Resistive Magnetohydrodynamic Shocks | Mark Wardle |
| Stephen Neilson, PhD Student stephen.neilson@students.mq.edu.au | Interactions between giants and planets | Orsola De Marco |
| Dmytro Rogozin, PhD Student dmytro.rogozin@kuleuven.be | Rubidium-locked etalons as wavelength reference for astronomical Doppler spectrographs | Christian Schwab |
| James Tocknell, PhD Student james.tocknell@mq.edu.au | Jets and Outflows from Protoplanetary Disks | Mark Wardle |
| Shane Vickers, PhD Student shane.vickers@mq.edu.au | A window into late-stage stellar evolution | Matt Owers |
Honorary Associates
| Name | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roy Allen | Retired | roy.allen@mq.edu.au | E7A 322 |
| Jeremy Bailey | University of New South Wales | j.bailey@unsw.edu.au | UNSW |
| Joao Bento | ANU | joao.bento@mq.edu.au | ANU |
| Mike Ireland | Future Fellow - ANU | michael.ireland@mq.edu.au | ANU |
| Borja Anguiano Jimenez | Honorary Associate | borja.anguiano@mq.edu.au | |
| Cormac Purcell | Honorary Lecturer | cormac.purcell@mq.edu.au | |
| Alan Vaughan | Retired | alan.vaughan@mq.edu.au | E7A 322 |
Alumni
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| Stefania Barsanti | MRes student - PhD Student - 2020 |
| Chikaedu Ogbodo | PhD Student - 2021 |
| Christina Baldwin | PhD Student - 2020 |
| Anita Petzler | PhD Student - 2021 |
| Dylan Bollen | PhD Student - 2021 |
| Hiep Van Nguyen | PhD Student - 2020 |
| Adriano Poci | PhD Student - 2020 |
| Blake Staples | MRes Student - 2020 |
| Erik Kool | PhD Student - 2019 |
| Tui Britton | PhD Student - 2018 |
| Bronwyn Reichardt | MRes Student - 2018 |
| Guravinder Pamar | MRes Studnet - 2018 |
| Glen Rees | PhD Student - 2017 |
| Daniel McDonald | PhD Student - 2017 |
| Colin Navin | PhD Student - TBC |
| Michael Cowley | PhD Student - TBC |
| Wilfred Gee | MRes Student - 2016 |
| Andrew Lehmann | PhD Student - 2016 |
| Roberto Iaconi | PhD Student - 2016 |
| Andreas Herzog | PhD Stduent - 2016 |
| Charles Cosgrove | MRes Student - 2016 |
| Carlos Bacigalupo | PhD Student - 2016 |
| Eric Howard | PhD Student - 2015 |
| Travis Stenborg | PhD Student – 2015 |
| Thomas Reichardt | MRes Student - 2015, PhD Student 2019 |
Adriano Poci | MRes Student - 2015 |
| Sarah (Traine) Keith | PhD Student – 2015 |
| Niyas Madappattu Alikutty | PhD Student - 2014 |
| Nick Cvetojevic | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Ashkbiz Danehkar | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Dimitri Douchin | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Michael Fitzgerald | PhD Student – 2014 |
| David Gardner | MRes Student – 2014 |
| Elaina Hyde | PhD Student -2014 |
| Rajika (Reggie) Kuruwita | MRes Student – 2014 |
| Izabela Spaleniak | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Aaron Rizzuto | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Arik Mitschang | PhD Student – 2014 |
| Stacey Bright | PhD Student – 2013 |
| Anthony Conn | PhD Student – 2013 |
| Geraldine Marien | MPhil Student – 2012 |
| Richard Baxter | MPhil Student – 2012 |
| Nemanja Jovanovic | PhD Student, PostDoc – 2012 |
| Catherine Braiding | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Sarah Chamberlain | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Kyle DePew | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Korinne McDonnell | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Duane Hamacher | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Andreas Ritter | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Anna Kovacevic | PhD Student – 2011 |
| Madusha Gunawardhana | BSc(Hons) Student – 2010 |
| Andrew Smith | MPhil Student – 2010 |
| Brent Miszalski | PhD Student – 2010 |
| Ivan Bojiic | PhD - 2009; Postdoc 2010-2014 (ARC SSF); IT specialist 2014-2015 |
| David Frew | PhD - 2008; Postdoc (MURF) 2010-2014 |
| Daniel Cotton | PhD Student (Adjunct) – 2008 |
| John Ching | BSc(Hons) Student – 2008 |
| Milorad Stupar | PhD - 2007; Postdoc 2007-2013 (Space to Grow and AAO) |
| Warren Reid | PhD - 2007; Postdoc (MURF) 2007-2015 |
| Rachel Moody | PostDoc Student – 2006 |
| Raquel Salmeron | BSc(Hons) Student – 2006 |
| Alan Peyaud | PhD Student – 2005, PostDoc – 2009 |
| Mark Pierce | PhD Student – 2005 |
| Shane Hengst | BSc(Hons) Student – 2005 |
| Daniel Hobbs | BSc(Hons) Student – 2004 |
| Angela Mabee | BSc(Hons) Student – 2004 |
| Lesa Moore | BSc(Hons) Student – 2003, MPhil – 2008 |
Association for Astronomy Staff
| Name | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Orsola De Marco | Director | orsola.demarco@mq.edu.au |
| Adam Joyce | Senior Scientific Officer | adam.joyce@mq.edu.au |
| Gabriella Quattropani | Administration Assistant | starinfo@mq.edu.au |
Administrative Staff
| Name | Position | |
|---|---|---|
| Kelly Sharpless | Administration and Marketing Assistant | kelly.sharpless@mq.edu.au |
Equity and diversity at MQAAAstro
MQAAAstro is committed to providing a safe and equitable workplace where all our members can flourish, regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability and sexual orientation. This commitment has been recognised with the awarding of a Silver Pleiades Award, alongside the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The Pleiades Awards recognise organisations in Australian astronomy encouraging full participation of women at all levels of professional life through the implementation of gender-friendly practices.