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 Astronomy & Space Science (CASS).
Astronomers
Dr Joanne Dawson
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Jo Dawson (BSc 1st class hons UCL, PhD Nagoya University) is a Senior Lecturer in Astronomy and Astrophysics and current ARC DECRA Fellow. She was previously an ARC Super Science Fellow at the University of Tasmania, a Bolton Fellow at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS), and held a joint Le… View full profile
Richard de Grijs
Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science and Engineering
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 Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, UK), before being appointed to a permanent post at the University of Sheffield (… View full profile
Orsola De Marco
Professor
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
 I am an Astrophysicists working on theory and observations of old stars and stars that interact with one another, generating outbursts and all manner of Astrophysical complexity. For furher infomration regarding my research, including projects and publications, please visit my research pages… View full profile
David W. Coutts
Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Faculty of Science and Engineering, MQ Photonics Research Centre
I am the Associate Dean Research 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 Optical Soci… View full profile
Dr Devika Kotachery
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Richard McDermid
Associate Professor
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Matt Owers
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Matt Owers (B.Sc. (Advanced Physics, hons. class I) University of Wollongong 2003, Ph.D University of New South Wales 2008)Â is a Future Fellow and Senior Lecturer at Macquarie. Previously, he was a Super Science Fellow at the Australian Astronomical Observatory (2011-2014), and a postdoctoral r… View full profile
Dr Cormac Purcell
Department of Physics and Astronomy
I am a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. I specialise in using radio telescopes to investigate the interstellar medium, with a focus on magnetism and star-formation in the Milky Way.I am particularly interested in using st… View full profile
Dr Christian Schwab
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Lee Spitler
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
My research aims to improve our understanding of how galaxies form and evolve through cosmic times. Galaxies host all the really interesting things about the universe (stars, dust, life, etc) so their study can tell us a lot about the universe we live in.I am also pursuing creative ways to view the… View full profile
Mark Wardle
Professor
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
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
Associate Professor
Centre in Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Department of Physics and Astronomy
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
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr Samyaday Choudhury
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Tobias Feger
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Yulia Gurevich
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Birendra Pandey
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Mr Daniel Prole
Department of Physics and Astronomy
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 |
Christina Baldwin, PhD Student christina.baldwin@students.mq.edu.au | Stellar populations of massive galaxies | Richard McDermid |
Stefania Barsanti, PhD student stefania.barsanti@students.mq.edu.au | Investigating the Reason of Star Formation Quenching in Galaxy Groups | Matt Owers |
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 |
Caro Derkenne,MRes student caro.derkenne@students.mq.edu.au | Total density slopes of early-type galaxies through cosmic time | Richard McDermid |
| Dylan Bollen, PhD Student dylan.bollen@mq.edu.au | Jet creation and accretion in evolved binary systems | Devika Kamath |
| Tiffany Day, PhD Student tiffany.day@students.mq.edu.au | Major cluster mergers as drivers of galaxy transformation and evolution | Matt Owers |
Danica Draskovic, PhD student danica.draskovic@students.mq.edu.au | Discovery and Multi-wavelength Study of Planetary Nebulae and Other Emission Objects in the Small Magellanic Cloud | Mark Wardle |
| 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 |
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 | TBA |
| 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 | TBA | Mark Wardle |
| Chikaedu Ogbodo, PhD Student chikaedu.ogbodo@hdr.mq.edu.au | Mapping the Galactic Magnetic Field With Masers | Joanne Dawson |
| Anita Petzler, PhD Student anita.petzler@students.mq.edu.au | Hydroxyl: Unrevelinig The Mysteries Of The Dark Galactic ISM | Joanne Dawson |
| Adriano Poci, PhD Student adriano.poci@students.mq.edu.au | The Stellar Initial Mass Function and Total Mass-Density Profiles of Galaxies in the SAMI Survey | Richard McDermid |
| Thomas Reichardt, PhD Student thomas.reichardt@students.mq.edu.au | Hydrodynamic Simulations of Common Envelope Binaries | Orsola De Marco |
| James Tocknell, PhD Student james.tocknell@mq.edu.au | Jets and Outflows from Protoplanetary Disks | Mark Wardle |
| Dmytro Rogozin, PhD Student dmytro.rogozin@kuleuven.be | Rubidium-locked etalons as wavelength reference for astronomical Doppler spectrographs | Christian Schwab |
| Shane Vickers, PhD Student shane.vickers@mq.edu.au | A window into late-stage stellar evolution | Matt Owers |
| Blake Staples, MRes Student blake.staples@students.mq.edu.au | Stability of molecular clouds in the interstellar medium | Mark Wardle |
| Hiep Van Nguyen, PhD Student van-hiep.nguyen@students.mq.edu.au | Shining Light on the Dark Milky Way: Probing our Galaxy’s Hidden Gas | Joanne Dawson |
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 | |
| Alan Vaughan | Retired | alan.vaughan@mq.edu.au | E7A 322 |
Alumni
| Name | Position |
|---|---|
| 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 |
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 | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orsola De Marco | Director | orsola.demarco@mq.edu.au | E6B 2.706 |
| Adam Joyce | Observatory Technical Officer | adam.joyce@mq.edu.au | E7B 214 |
| Emma Hastings | Administrator & Manager | starinfo@mq.edu.au | E6B 2.601 |
Administrative Staff
| Name | Position | Location | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anne-Laurence Bibost | Research Centre Administrator | a.bibost@mq.edu.au | E6B 2.613 |
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 preference. 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.