In the heart of ancient Greece, a group of Macquarie University students, led by Dr Susan Lupack, embarked on a transformative adventure during the 2023 Perachora Peninsula Archaeological Project.

Their goal was to reveal the hidden secrets of a bygone era and breathe new life into history. This journey was made possible through the generous support they received from the Gale Fund.

Survey line at Asprokampos

Their work began with an exploration of the eighth- to second-century B.C.E. town associated with the Sanctuary of Hera, where the team uncovered and mapped additional features of the Upper Plain, including the fascinating Dunbabin’s House. What’s more, they meticulously traced the ancient road that ran through the town, providing fresh insights into the region’s rich past.

Closer to the sanctuary, they identified high-quality sherds, which they concluded must represent remnants of pottery from an excavation in the 1930s. Dr Lupack and her team recognised the significance of these finds, and their analysis is shedding new light on the sanctuary’s history. Notably, they discovered an Argive coin featuring a distinctive wolf’s head on its obverse.

Left image: The team at Mycenae on a study tour of the site on their day off

Right image: Dr Barbora Weissova of Bilkent University, Turkey piloting a drone

The team elevated their research by introducing cutting-edge technology. With the aid of a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone, piloted by Dr Barbora Weissova of Bilkent University, Turkey, they took to the skies to visualise the Fountain House, Building A I and the sanctuary itself. These images will serve as the foundation for interactive maps and photogrammetric models, offering an immersive experience for visitors and a comprehensive understanding of the region’s past.

Beyond the sanctuary, the project extended to the Perachora Peninsula’s agricultural plain, Asprokampos. The fieldwalkers surveyed the area, investigating the remains of two structures from the Archaic–Classical period, one believed to be a substantial building and the other a watchtower. This evidence hints at a thriving settlement that spanned millennia, dating back to the Late Bronze Age.

The team’s groundbreaking work didn’t stop there. They were invited by the Ephoreia, an archaeological agency in Greece, to explore Diokastro, a fortified citadel with a commanding view of the Corinthian Gulf. This site’s historical significance, recorded by Xenophon, suggests further exciting discoveries in the future.

Dr Lupack and her team’s dedication extended to collaborating with Greek colleagues on mapping other archaeological sites on the Perachora Peninsula, integrating their collective knowledge of the region’s rich archaeological history.

Throughout the project, students were at the heart of the action. They actively participated in every facet of the work, from total pick-ups* to fieldwalking, processing and photographing the artefacts, digitising images of the sites and working with the data collected. They even assisted with drone operations. The hands-on experience gave them a tangible connection to the past while contributing to its understanding in the present.

“These immersive experiences offer a glimpse into the professional world of archaeology, providing them with the skills they need to become the archaeologists of tomorrow,” says Dr Lupack.

“It’s a voyage into the past, but also a stepping stone to their futures.”

Read these stories for more information:

• Why pottery is history’s best friend: new exhibition
• Greek field trip: Archaeology adventure offers insights into ancient world

*In archaeology, ‘total pick-ups’ are a method of retrieving every artefact in a certain area, in order to be able to fully understand the total number of sherds and the chronological time periods they represent.

Special thanks and photo credit go to Dr Susan Lupack.

The final of the Incubator’s Researchers’ IMPACT Program was held recently with five finalists pitching their ideas for the chance to secure a slice of $25,000 in non-equity bearing seed funding. All participants also received membership into next year’s program.

“Research is not just about discovery, it’s about the researchers’ relentless pursuit of answers that shape our world,” says Melissa Ryan, Director Incubation and Entrepreneurship. The Researchers’ IMPACT Pitch Final celebrates these innovators and change-makers who are turning questions into solutions.”

Congratulations to the Apate team – Professor Dali Kaafar, Dr Ian Wood, Michal Kepkowski, Conor Atkins and Dr Nardine Basta – from the Cyber Security Hub for winning first prize. The pitch, ‘Apate: Defeating Global Phone Scams with Conversational AI’, demonstrated how conversational AI techniques are used to develop adaptive AI bots that disrupt the scamming model by wasting the scammers time.

The team plans to use the $20,000 in seed funding to enhance and scale the voice generation and cloud hosting services offering within the product. Not only will this provide a higher quality POC (proof of concept), but it will also assist with prototyping the highly scaled deployments that will be required in partnership with major telecommunication providers.

Dr Susan Caldis from the Macquarie School of Education was runner-up, receiving $5000 in seed funding with her pitch on ‘CoMAP’, a research-informed solution to support trainee and graduate teachers who are required to teach a subject beyond their specialisation. CoMAP stands for a Co-designed Microcredential and Advising Program. The Faculty of Arts will contribute additional funds to support the development of the program.

“I was looking for a way to stretch and challenge my thinking about research productivity and to explore a meaningful way to translate my research into a tangible product beyond publications,” says Dr Caldis. “This program promised and delivered on rigour, creativity, struggle, success, enrichment and accountability; you get out what you put in.”

Apate’s Dr Wood agrees: “[The Researchers’ IMPACT program] has been a valuable bridge between the academic and commercial startup worlds. Even for those who feel they know their way around, the evidence-based learning is bound to identify new aspects and perspectives. I highly recommended this program.”

Last year’s winner, Professor Ray Laurence, Discipline Chair, Ancient History, used the funding to make a series of five animated films about the everyday people living their lives in Pompeii, Italy 2000 years ago. The first film, Pompeian Streets, launched on 16 October.

“I would recommend the Researchers’ IMPACT program to other academics in any faculty. It was the catalyst to get me to do what I had been thinking about doing,” says Professor Laurence. Read more here about Professor Laurence’s project on The Lighthouse or watch episode one of the series below:

This film is part of a new series of Pompeii films to be released each month from October 2023 on the Ancient Rome in Motion YouTube channel. The series was supported with funding from the Macquarie University Research Impact program.

The dates for next year’s Researchers’ IMPACT Program will be available soon. If you are a researcher and want to know more about the program, contact Melissa Ryan melissa.ryan@mq.edu.au

The program focused on the journey of one of Professor Rowe’s patients, 1980s television personality, Fiona MacDonald.

Ms MacDonald, who hosted the family game show It’s a Knock Out! and popular children’s show Wombat, was diagnosed with MND in 2021.

MND is a neurodegenerative disease that results in progressive loss of motor control. There is no cure, and most people die within two years of diagnosis.

Wanting to make the most of the time she has left, but also give something back, Ms MacDonald embarked on a 15,000-kilometre road trip around Australia in June.

As well as increasing awareness about this cruel disease, she hoped her ‘big lap’ would raise $100,000 for the MND Research Centre’s work. At the time of publication, she had surpassed that goal, raising more than $127,000.

Professor Rowe was interviewed extensively for the show, and spent a weekend visiting the Riverina so he could be interviewed with another of his patients, citrus grower Rocky Pirrotinna.

The Riverina has the sad distinction of being a hotspot for MND, with its residents being diagnosed with the disease at five times the national rate.

However, with no official figures, clusters can be difficult to recognise, and this is hampering research. Professor Rowe has been lobbying for some time to have MND declared a notifiable disease, requiring doctors to notify the government of all new cases.

While about 10 per cent of cases are inherited, the rest are sporadic. The causes of these sporadic cases have not yet been confirmed, but researchers around the world are investigating possible environmental factors.

One of those possible links is outbreaks of blue-green algae, which often occur in waterways around agricultural areas due to fertiliser run-off. Professor Rowe and his team are working to secure funding to delve into the blue‑green algae connection.

The MND Research Centre is also hoping to raise funds to support the next phase of the clinical trial of a promising potential treatment for MND, 3K3A‑APC.

Learn more about the MND Research Centre’s work.

Watch the episode below.

Researchers were challenged to showcase their pitching skills in front of academic peers and grant development experts at the recent Pitch Week final, in preparation for future funding applications.

Developed by the Grant Development Team, the pitch program provides researchers with a unique opportunity to receive specific feedback on research ideas during the early stages of development.

“Feedback at this early stage can be pivotal in ensuring an applicant is competitive to apply, is at the right career stage, has the best team and wants to apply for an appropriate scheme,” says Dr Ross Hill, Senior Grant Development Manager.

“It was very encouraging to see the range of brilliant, innovative research ideas and the generous support from the audience, who provided excellent feedback on each pitch. The value of networking opportunities should not be underestimated, with new connections made across the University.”

The program is open to all Macquarie research staff interested in applying for external funding schemes, along with individuals who are either resubmitting an application or entering the Australian funding landscape for the first time. The projects in the pitch aligned to each of the five future-shaping research priorities: Healthy People; Resilient Societies; Prosperous Economies; Secure Planet; and Innovative Technologies. The winners received co-funding from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) to be used as a cash contribution to an external funding application within 12 months of the pitch.

Dr Caragh Threlfall, School of Natural Sciences, won the competition, receiving $3000 in co-funding from the DVCR.

“The process of putting together the slides in addition to the feedback given on the day has been very helpful in crafting my proposed grant application. I would encourage everyone to enter this event,” says Dr Threlfall.

Dr Rezwanul Rana from the Centre for the Health Economy, who entered the competition adds: “Gaining input on potential funding opportunities and research collaborations was really valuable at this early stage of planning.”

Congratulations to the winners

Winner – $3000

Dr Caragh Threlfall, School of Natural Sciences, Smart Green Cities Research Centre
Doing more with less: Reimagining urban plantings for pollinators and people
Research priority: Secure Planet

Second Place – $2000

Dr Milena Gandy, School of Psychological Sciences, Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Research Centre
Advancing the supportive care of adults with neurological disorders via digital mental health care pathways
Research priority: Healthy People

Third Place – $1000

Dr Théotime Colin, School of Natural Sciences,
Improving bee health for better pollination
Research priority: Secure Planet

Do you have feedback about the event or ideas for Pitch Week 2024? Contact grant.development@mq.edu.au.

Macquarie’s Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition finals were held on Thursday 7 September. The competition’s prestigious judging panel consisted of Professor Sakkie Pretorius, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research), Professor Simon Handley, Pro Vice-Chancellor Graduate Research and Professor Ronika Power from the Department of History and Archaeology.

School of Natural Sciences PhD candidate Frigg Speelman was thrilled to learn that she had won Macquarie’s Three Minute Thesis competition with her video presentation titled Children of Divorce: what we can learn from the animal kingdom.

Frigg, who is a cotutelle PhD candidate with both Macquarie University and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, arrived in Australia this April. She has spent the last month doing fieldwork at the Fowler’s Gap Arid Zone research station, more than a hundred kilometres from Broken Hill.

The thirteen-hour drive to the University from Fowler’s Gap meant that Frigg found out she had won via text message – and says she was amazed and very happy to hear the news.

“I was very hesitant to enter the Three Minute Thesis,” says Frigg.

“Public speaking makes a lot of people nervous and I was uneasy about filming myself, but Professor Simon Griffith encouraged me and I also wanted to take on this challenge for myself,” she says.

Frigg’s research explores what happens to the offspring of wild birds who split with their breeding partner, if they are from a species that is typically socially monogamous. “I’m doing something that’s never been done before,” she says.

Frigg spent the first two years of her PhD focused on the Seychelles warbler, a small and endangered tropical bird that is only found on a few islands in the Indian Ocean.

In Australia, she works with the Chirruping Wedgebill (pictured right), found mostly in inland Australia. “The little information known about these birds is that they’re relatively sedentary and they are socially monogamous, which fits into my research on bird partnerships,” she explains.

Three volunteers and a masters student are currently helping with her research. “We go into the field each day to catch birds, tag them and record their behaviour,” she says.

Biologists have studied the Seychelles warbler for decades, producing multigenerational data on the entire life trajectories of hundreds of birds, she says – but nobody has yet measured the impact of parental breakups on their offspring.

Frigg’s work examines biomarkers that measure birds’ health and risk of mortality, taking blood and DNA samples and other indicators like bodyfat, and looks at how long they live and how many offspring they produce, comparing birds whose parents divorced with those whose parents are still together.

“My PhD will provide new insights into how switching romantic partners can have multigenerational implications in species other than humans,” she explains.

Professor Simon Griffith says that Frigg’s study forms a bridge from Australian animal behavioural research into other locations such as Europe where there are often decades of work.

“Frigg is also now working in the Australian environment, which is very different from her previous work in the tropics and can help us to understand how birds behave slightly differently in different ecological situations,” he says.

Professor Griffith was delighted to hear that Frigg’s presentation won the University finals, and said she had an outstanding presentation.

He notes that students who do the three-minute thesis gain some useful new skills.

“They learn to distil their work down to make a compelling story in a very small amount of time – and Frigg did a great job of communicating her science in a way that makes it very relevant to people.”

Congratulations to the winners:

Winner

Frigg Speelman
School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Children of divorce: what we can learn from the animal kingdom

Frigg will proceed to the Asia-Pacific 3MT Semi-Finals on Monday 25 September.

Runner up

Karen Woo
School of Education, Faculty of Arts
Kinder Surprise or Failed Experiment – How well are kids learning to code in schools?

Second runner up

Khalia Ackermann
Australian Institute Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences
Investigating sepsis survivor health

People’s choice

Thomas Montefiore
Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts
The Gamer’s Dilemma

You can support Frigg by voting in the People’s Choice ballot via a poll on the 3MT website.

The winner of the People’s Choice will also progress to the Asia-Pacific 3MT Final on Wednesday 18 October alongside the eight finalists chosen by the judging panels.

The 12 Macquarie finalists will also take part in a spotlight interview on 2SER radio.

Listen to last year’s finalists here.

An important practice for many Indigenous nations, cultural burning – also known as ‘cool burning’ – involves small, controlled blazes during the early dry season to remove undergrowth and prevent larger, more destructive fires, while encouraging native seeds to propagate. With climate change anticipated to increase the number and severity of bushfires in Australia, there is growing interest in the revival of cultural burning and other Indigenous forms of caring for Ngurra/Country.

Together with fellow Dharug women, Dr Rey is drawing on thousands of years of knowledge to explore how Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing can inform and co-exist with contemporary land management practices when Country is a colonised, urban environment.

Dr Rey’s doctoral thesis, completed in 2019, explored cultural continuity through the perspectives of seven Dharug women. Now, she is approaching the culmination of a three-year postdoctoral project that explores how Indigenous knowledge and practices are being applied within Country in three locations: Blacktown Native Institution Site, Shaws Creek Aboriginal Place and Browns Waterhole (BWH) in Lane Cove National Park. BWH is near Wallumattagal Campus and will be the site for the planned cultural burn later this year.

“Wallumattagal’s connections to Durrumburra/Lane Cove River, Browns Waterhole and the Lane Cove National Park, and their proximity to our campus, offers an opportunity to activate Dharug cultural caring, knowledges and relationships, including through fire, within what is otherwise a highly urbanised area of Dharug Ngurra,” Dr Rey says.

Dharug women have collectively been working with different partners, organisations and stakeholders to ensure the transfer of Dharug knowledge about caring for Country across the three city sites. Preparations for the cultural burn began in 2020, with the women working closely with the Department of Planning and Environment’s Cultural Fire Management Unit, City of Ryde Council, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, the NSW Rural Fire Service, and colleagues at Macquarie.

“Underpinning this journey has been the consciousness of ‘yanamawa budyari gumada’ – Dharug-dalang for ‘walking with good spirit’. There has been generous participation across all the stakeholder groups and organisations involved, and relationships between the various partners have been strengthened through this work,” says Dr Rey.

“It sets a precedent for the future so that other inner urban locations can be nurtured and healed through the traditional custodians’ relationality with the land and the Dharug speaking peoples.”

In May, Dharug women camped together for the first time since colonisation near Browns Waterhole, with the support of government departments and the local council. Six Dharug women led the camp alongside two Dharug men as camp managers, in addition to park rangers and Macquarie academics.

Dharug women Dr Rosemary Norman-Hill and artist Venessa Possum prepare for the camp’s opening ceremony

Over the course of three days, the women connected with the site, sharing traditional Dharug knowledge and practices with the group. The camp began with a smoking ceremony, using ochre from the Blue Mountains, before a series of activities to help build a knowledge base for the area. These included the development of an animal and plant database to understand the living creatures that occupy the area, training in the use of key equipment for the cultural burn, bush medicine and art workshops to continue the transfer of knowledge, and a clean-up of the site.

Dr Rey is now making final preparations ahead of the anticipated burn in early spring of this year. In addition to its historic significance, the cultural burn will return Dharug presence into a cultural relationship with Country, as well as inform others how Indigenous cultural practices, perspectives and ways of knowing, being and doing can be used to protect and care for Country for sustainable futures.

However, when you speak to graduates of Macquarie’s Master of Research (MRes) program about how they felt going into their PhD or post-university career, some common themes emerge. Prepared. Supported. Confident. Excited. The MRes is clearly delivering on its objective to provide a research training program that gives students the skills and knowledge they need to succeed – whatever their chosen path.

Hamid Yahyaei (left), who is nearing the completion of his PhD in the Department of Applied Finance, says there is no doubt the MRes program made a difference to his success as a researcher and ultimately, to his employability.

“The MRes provided excellent preparation for my PhD studies,” Hamid says. “The advanced coursework was especially beneficial in building my research skills and the training I received helped me accelerate the pace of my PhD, which will have been a three-year journey after my two years in the MRes.

“Completing a research masters is no easy accomplishment, and the skills I attained during the MRes definitely enhanced my employability. The MRes teaches you to be a better writer, to manage your time and, most importantly, to think critically and undertake rigorous research.”

Milena Bojovic (right), current PhD candidate in the School of Social Sciences, agrees.

“The MRes gave me the opportunity to learn critical research, writing and thinking skills,” she says. “I was able to read outside of my discipline and learn from peers in other disciplines, which enriched my learning experience and made me a better research communicator.

“In addition to building foundational research skills like reading for purpose, writing with clarity and data analysis, the MRes also helped me to develop my interpersonal skills by teaching me to communicate with diverse audiences and build my scholarly and professional networks. In addition, I was able to do a PACE research internship, which equipped me with qualitative and quantitative skills that I have drawn upon throughout my PhD journey.”

Both Hamid and Milena point to the world-class standard of Macquarie’s supervisors and the support given to students in the MRes program as being key to their success.

“One of my current supervisors, Professor Tom Smith, was instrumental in my success due to the learning I experienced in his classes,” says Hamid. “They were some of the most challenging but rewarding courses I have ever taken.”

Ultimately, Milena says, the MRes is a great starting place for students who are keen to explore their area of passion – whatever that might be.

“The MRes opens so many doors – whether that be down the path of a PhD or into a role that requires you to engage critically with different skills and topics. It was one of the best decisions I ever made for myself.”

If you, or one of your students, would like to know more about the Master of Research, don’t miss the Master of Research Information Session on Tuesday 12 September.

The University recently announced an increased stipend rate for Macquarie University graduate research students, with all continuing and newly commencing candidates on RTP and MQRES scholarships set to receive a stipend of $35,000 per annum from 1 January 2024.

The Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation and Enterprise) leads the University’s efforts to foster and grow strategic partnerships and alliances with industry and government, aligning to Macquarie’s strategic research, education and health objectives. Its three key functions are commercialisation, partnerships, and entrepreneurship and engagement.

Commercialisation

The Commercialisation team creates impact through the commercialisation of Macquarie intellectual property (IP). The team assists creators to identify the value of the IP, confirm the chain of title or ownership, determine appropriate protection and commercialisation strategies, and negotiate agreements with partners. They also promote and encourage innovation and entrepreneurial culture at Macquarie through educational workshops, as well as by providing IP and commercialisation advice for University staff and students.

Commercialisation vehicles include (but are not limited to) licensing, collaborations and joint ventures, assignment and/or sale of IP, and startup company creation.

Meet the team:

• Dr Kathryn Sunn – Director, Commercialisation 
• Dr Gorjana Mitic and Dr Fiona Nelms – Commercialisation and Innovation Managers 
• Bel Coppock – Intellectual Property Portfolio Manager 
• Gabi Teli – Intellectual Property Portfolio Officer

Macquarie Partnerships  

The Macquarie Partnerships team offers a central and professional ‘front door’ for industry and government to connect, engage and partner with Macquarie across research and innovation, education and employability, and corporate avenues.

The Macquarie Partnerships team is led by Director Katrina Avery, and supported by administration officer Leanne Price. There are two core teams within Macquarie Partnerships – the Corporate Engagement team and the Research Partnerships team – which work together closely.

Corporate Engagement

The Corporate Engagement team fosters and develops Macquarie’s whole–of–university relationships with Connect Macquarie Park Innovation District (CMPID), industry organisations and partners in the MPID, and external industry and government organisations. They also help identify, shape and enable education and employability partnership opportunities with industry partners and deliver the Manawari Cultural Safety program.

The team works closely with leaders and academics in each of the four faculties, with a particular focus on education and employability and the objectives of Walanga Muru, as well as with central support teams who service and enable education and employability and whole–of–university partnerships.

Meet the team:

• Stirling Wright – MPID Partnerships and Engagement Manager 
• Geoffrey Bilney – Indigenous Corporate Engagement Manager 
• Anna Barletta – Education and Employability Partnerships Manager, Faculty of Arts and Macquarie Business School 
• Jessica Hutchinson – Education and Employability Partnerships Manager, Faculty of Science and Engineering and Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences 
• Hadeer Khan – MPID Partnerships and Engagement Assistant

Corporate Engagement team members can be contacted directly or via ce@mq.edu.au

Research Partnerships  

The Research Partnerships team works closely with the Executive Group, faculties and researchers in all aspects of partner–funded research. The team actively fosters connections and partnerships between the University and industry and government, and identifies, enables, negotiates and secures research partnership projects and opportunities in discrete fields and across thematic areas of external priority.

The activities and services of the Research Partnerships team include:

• relationship management and partnership development between Macquarie’s faculties and academics, and industry and government 
• business development, industry assessment and analysis 
• capability profiling through industry events, partner visits and capability statements 
• identification and promotion of industry and government funding and partnership opportunities, informed by industry developments and University and faculty strategic priorities  
• proposal and tender development and submission 
• project pricing 
• intellectual property protection and commercialisation pipeline management 
• contract preparation and negotiation 
• contract finalisation, approvals and execution.

The team manages research partnership projects (including consultancy projects, contract research projects and collaborative research projects) and bids for major collaborative research initiatives such as CRCs, CoEs, ITRHs and ITTCs. The team also manages NSW Research Network relationships and facilitates by-request workshops spanning all aspects of research partnership development and maintenance.

Meet the team:

• Jo Tuck – Strategic Research Bid and Partnerships Manager, working across all faculties 
• Associate Professor Mark Reed – Strategic Research Bid Manager, working across all faculties 
• Dr Matt van Breugel – Business Development Manager (Defence and Space), working across all faculties 
• Dr John Golding – Research Partnerships Manager, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences 
• Helena Hurley – Research Partnerships Manager, Macquarie Business School 
• Matthew Bevin – Research Partnerships Manager, Faculty of Science and Engineering 
• Sylvia Brohl – Research Partnerships Coordinator, Faculty of Science and Engineering 
• Yasmeen Elkhodr – Research Partnerships Coordinator, Faculty of Science and Engineering 
• Chloe Williams –Research Partnerships Officer, working across all faculties

A Research Partnerships Manager is currently being recruited, to be aligned with the Faculty of Arts.

Research Partnerships team members can be contacted directly or via research.partnerships@mq.edu.au

Incubation and Entrepreneurship

The Macquarie University Incubator, launched in 2017, has created an open ecosystem for students, researchers, startups, scaleups and industry ‘intrapreneurs’. It provides support via bespoke education programs, mentor and advisor networks, and access to space to explore, develop and scale ideas for real-world impact.

The team at the Incubator delivers educational programs and events catering to the startup and innovation community, focusing on topics across the business commercialisation process. The Incubator is industry, stage and technology agnostic, meaning the team supports startups and scaleups regardless of their industry or their technology focus. The Incubator is currently supporting businesses from a diverse array of fields, including medtech, biotech, proptech, edutech and more.

Meet the team:

• Melissa Ryan – Director, Incubation and Entrepreneurship 
• James Linton – Incubator Manager
• Erika Masubuchi – Program Lead 
• James Benson – Administration and Operations Assistant 
• Emma Kettle – Laboratory Lead 
• Alara Gencer – Project Officer 
• Willemijn Osselaer – Project Coordinator

Contact the Incubator team members directly, or via incubator@mq.edu.au.

Centre expertise

By bringing together astronomy researchers, instrumentation experts and data specialists, the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre works across traditional discipline boundaries, creating a collaborative ecosystem for research and discovery driven by astronomy, but with the potential to benefit a range of stakeholders, from the defence industry to remote sensing. The Centre’s focus on astronomy also provides an inspiring vehicle for engaging the public in science, including highlighting First Nations culture and knowledge. Centre membership spans multiple areas of expertise from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences to Australian Astronomical Optics– Macquarie (AAO), the School of Computing and Walanga Muru.

Centre leadership

The Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre is led by Director Professor Richard McDermid and Co-Directors Professor Mark Casali and Professor Orsola De Marco.

The Centre’s activities are overseen by a inter-department Executive Group: Professor Richard de Grijs, Professor Andrew Hopkins (external research engagement); Dr Joanne Dawson, Dr Angel Lopez-Sanchez (ECR and HDR Development); Associate Professor Lee Spitler (industry engagement – space); Associate Professor Simon Ellis (industry engagement – instrumentation); Dr Simon O’Toole (data – infrastructure); Dr Matt Owers (data – astronomy applications); Professor Benoit Liquet-Weiland (data – statistics and data science); Professor Dan Zucker, Dr Tayyaba Zafar (equity, diversity and inclusion); Professor Leanne Holt (Indigenous community engagement); and Dr Devika Kamath (public outreach).

Research themes

Driving questions of modern astrophysics, and their societal impact
The Centre’s astronomy researchers are tackling some of the biggest questions in astrophysics, including: How did the first stars and galaxies transform the Universe? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? How do galaxies form and evolve across cosmic time? How do stars and planets form? How are elements produced by stars and recycled through galaxies? What is the nature of matter and gravity at extreme densities? Sharing our discoveries through active outreach is key to our societal impact and builds the long-term flow of young people into STEM. 

Data-intensive capabilities
The Centre brings together AAO’s nationally important Data Central e-Research platform with data science and statistics experts from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and School of Computing, creating new opportunities to collaborate on data-intensive research applications linked astronomy facilities, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).

Instrumentation research and technology development
AAO is a world-leading astronomical instrument designer and builder, with technical capabilities in advanced manufacturing and precision optics that has application in telecommunications, space science, medical imaging and defence. Developing new technology for major telescope facilities can also provide dedicated access to these new facilities for Centre researchers.

Key partners

The Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre works in collaboration with a range of partners including the national and international astronomy research community, CSIRO, the European Southern Observatory, the Giant Magellan Telescope, the Australian SKA Regional Centre, the Australian Space Agency and Gilmour Space Technologies.

Current projects

The MAVIS instrument
In collaboration with national and international partners, AAO is building a unique piece of technology that harnesses the combined power of one of the world’s largest telescopes, powerful lasers and state-of-the-art control software, to overcome the limitations imposed by Earth’s atmosphere on astronomical observations. This will enable a new view on the cosmos and complement advances from other space- and ground-based facilities. The Centre will lead research that will including studying individual stars in distant galaxies and seeing deeper into visible space than ever before.

The MANIFEST fibre positioner
MANIFEST is a multi-object fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan Telescope. MANIFEST will consist of hundreds of high precision robots (called “Starbugs”) that patrol the telescope field of view and feed celestial light into optical spectrographs. The Starbug technology underpinning MANIFEST uses piezoceramic actuators operating in closed loop via a fixed metrology camera bank to obtain 20 micron precision over the full metre-scale field-of-view of the telescope. This technology has been developed at the AAO over the last decade.

Data pipelines for the European Southern Observatory
Centre member Data Central is collaborating with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on the development and maintenance of pipeline data reduction software its instruments at La Silla and Paranal observatories in Chile. This software cleans the collected data by removing the signatures left by the telescope and instruments, leaving only features pertaining to the astronomical objects to be studied. The data are also calibrated so that meaningful scientific measurements can be made and compared with data taken at different times and on other instruments.

Malya Thermal Camera
AAO is partnering with Gilmour Space Technologies – an Australian space company that is developing launch vehicles and satellite platforms – to produce a new sovereign space technology, set to launch in 2023. As part of this project, a team of technical specialists at AAO are designing and will construct and deliver a thermal camera payload, called Mayla, which could be used for many different applications, including water quality monitoring, bushfire detection, weather monitoring and more.

The Hector Galaxy Survey
Hector is a multi-integral field unit spectrograph located on the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, that aims to map the distribution of stars and gas in up to 15,000 galaxies. Key questions include: How do galaxies build up mass and angular momentum? How is star formation and nuclear activity affected by environment? How does the large-scale environment modulate galaxy growth? In addition to AAO designing and constructing the spectrograph and telescope interfaces, the Centre’s astronomers are leading key aspects of the survey science, as well as data collection over the next several years.

How to engage with the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre

Staff interested in contributing to the works of the Centre are encouraged to contact Professor Richard McDermid, Professor Mark Casali or Professor Orsola De Marco.

Recent Lighthouse stories from Astrophysics and Space Technologies

• Sky shows: A stargazer’s guide to 2023
• Death spiral: New James Webb Space Telescope images show a star’s murder scene
• Macquarie University and Gilmour Space partner to deliver new space technology set for orbit

Centre expertise 

The Hearing Research Centre brings together more than 70 researchers from across all four faculties, combining expertise in hearing, language and linguistics, communication, engineering, psychological sciences, AI, engineering, and more. The Centre’s mission is to innovate and transform hearing health for all, and this can only be achieved by combining wide interests, skills and talents, and by adopting a collaborative and inclusive approach. 

Research themes 

• To employ a public health and co-design approach to transform hearing health and inform healthcare practice and policies for healthy listening and communication in Australia and globally. 
• Explore the fundamental bases of human hearing and its critical role in healthy communication, individual wellbeing and social connectedness. 
• Translate research and transform the design and development of assessments, environments, interventions and technologies supporting communication needs. 
• Improve current solutions and generate an entirely new class of hearing therapies and platforms informed by, and suited to the improvement of, human hearing abilities. 

Centre leadership 

Distinguished Professor David McAlpine, Department of Linguistics; Professor Bamini Gopinath, Macquarie Cochlear Chair in Hearing and Health; Professor Catherine McMahon Department of Linguistics; and Dr Romaric Bouveret, Macquarie University Hearing Director of Strategy and Operations. 

Key partners 

The Centre is uniquely positioned to deliver on its mission because of its partnership with the Australian Hearing Hub. Members include Cochlear, Hearing Australia, National Acoustic Laboratories, NextSense and The Shepherd Centre, all of whom are regularly engaged in impactful and multidisciplinary research. Another key partner is the Macquarie Speech and Hearing Clinic. 

A research partnership with Google’s Digital Future Initiative brings together Google, Macquarie University Hearing, Cochlear, National Acoustic Laboratories, NextSense and the Shepherd Centre, to explore new possibilities and AI solutions for hearing healthcare.

The Hearing Research Centre also works in partnership with community groups located at the Australian Hearing Hub, including Parents of Deaf Children, Hear For You and Hearing Matters Australia.   

Current projects include 

Hearing Impairment Data Infrastructure (HEIDI)
Project lead: Professor Gopinath 

The HEIDI project aims to establish a national data resource to slow the course of adult-onset hearing loss. This big data project will transform our understanding of how adults with hearing loss navigate the care pathway, from general practice to the audiology clinic. The project aims to: (i) generate a centralised repository of large, heterogeneous datasets providing a comprehensive view of the patient journey; (ii) create data-driven decision support tools that can be integrated into general practice workflows, to motivate and empower GPs and their patients to better address hearing health. The impact of this project is set to significantly improve access to care and the patient experience. 

Forming and following auditory objects
Project lead: Professor McAlpine 

Problems understanding speech in background noise are an early sign of hearing loss. This project will determine brain mechanisms that support ‘cocktail party listening’, and how this is affected by hearing impairment. Employing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)—neuroimaging technology that uses light to infer changes in cortical neural activity—it will explore how accurately representing the statistical structure of background sounds improves listening abilities in challenging acoustic environments. Unlike other brain-imaging technologies, fNIRS is compatible with hearing aids and cochlear implants and can be used to explore ways in which technological solutions to hearing loss can be enhanced to connect users to their listening environments. This project is funded by the William Demant Foundation.

Developing realistic hearing assessments
Project lead: Associate Professor Jorg Buchholz 

Communication in the real world requires attending to one or more people while filtering out distractions like background noise, other people talking and reverberation. Successful listening in such dynamic, complex environments is strongly impacted by hearing loss, cognitive decline and other age-related factors. Despite the complexity of these environments, current clinical hearing assessments largely rely on pure tone audiometry and other tests that use artificial sounds. The aim of the ECological Hearing Outcomes (ECHO) Laboratory is to bring the real world into the laboratory so that listening can be assessed in controlled environments while providing outcomes that are representative of an individual’s real-world listening experience and disability. In pursuit of this, the Centre has engineered 3D audio and video technologies that allow the recording and reproduction of authentic real-world scenes in the laboratory. This project has also developed and validated listening tasks that go beyond the detection of tones and simple word recall, assessing speech comprehension, interactive communication and spatial awareness. Using these realistic assessments, the Centre can provide a research and development platform that allows evaluation of the benefit of hearing aids, cochlear implants and other hearing technologies. 

LEAP-HEAR 
Project lead: Professor McMahon 

Middle ear disease (known as otitis media or OM) in Aboriginal children is highly prevalent (occurring at three times the rate of non-Indigenous children), occurs earlier, lasts longer than non-Indigenous children, and disrupts critical periods of literacy and language development. This program is delivered in partnership with Macquarie University’s Djurali Centre and aims to mitigate the effects of ear disease and hearing loss in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children by: (i) strengthening and robustly evaluating three long-standing pre-school and school hearing screening programs in three Aboriginal communities in NSW; (ii) establishing an effective and scalable model for national roll out.

The Australian Eye and Ear Health Survey
Project lead: Professor Gopinath 

The Australian Eye and Ear Health Survey was launched in 2022 with the goal of recruiting 5000 adults from 30 sites across urban, regional and remote regions in Australia. This is the first national survey to assess both vision and hearing loss and provides contemporary data on risk factors as well as information on the health and social impacts of sensory impairments in Australian adults. It is funded by the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care and the Martin Lee Centre for Innovations in Hearing Health. 

How to engage with the Hearing Research Centre 

Staff interested in contributing to the works of the Centre are encouraged to contact  Professor David McAlpine, Professor Bamini Gopinath, Professor Catherine McMahon or Dr Romaric Bouveret.