Academic Staff
Tim Bedding
Professor

Tim Bedding
Professor
Stellar oscillations (asteroseismology), using data from NASA’s Kepler and TESS missions.
A recipient of the University of Sydney's Excellence in Teaching Award.
View Tim’s academic profile HERE
Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Professor

Joss Bland-Hawthorn
Professor
Galactic archaeology and physical processes in galaxies, both observations and simulations.
Key member of the GALAH and SAMI/Hector surveys.
Project scientist for the SAIL labs which develop photonic instruments for telescopes and industry.
View Joss’s academic profile HERE
Céline Boehm
Professor

Céline Boehm
Professor
Céline Boehm is an astroparticle physicist working at the interface of particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. She is trying to discover what dark matter is made of.
View Celine’s academic profile HERE
Julia Bryant
Professor

Julia Bryant
Professor
High redshift radio galaxies, galaxy evolution and astrophotonic developments for astronomical instrumentation, in particular imaging fibre bundles called hexabundles.
Leads the team building the Hector instrument for the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
View Julia’s academic profile HERE
Manisha Caleb
Lecturer

Manisha Caleb
Lecturer
Using localised Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) as cosmological probes.
Measuring the distribution function of dispersion measure in the FRB population to help understand how baryons are distributed with respect to galaxy halos, in combination with UV and X-ray absorption-line surveys.
Using integral field spectroscopy to better characterize the local environment of FRBs, including their host dispersion measure contribution and exploring how future FRBs at high redshift can be used as probes for helium reionisation.
Scott Croom
Professor

Scott Croom
Professor
Cosmology and the formation and evolution of galaxies.
The study of quasars and active galactic nuclei and the use of spatially resolved spectroscopy to further our understanding of galaxy evolution.
Leads the SAMI Galaxy Survey.
View Scott's academic profile HERE
Anne Green
Emeritus Professor

Anne Green
Emeritus Professor
The structure and ecology of the Milky Way Galaxy and its various constituents, via radio frequency surveys, including searches for supernova remnants and OH masers.
Studies of the Carina Nebula, including its HI and molecular gas.
The UTMOST project to detect and characterise Fast Radio Bursts with the Molonglo Telescope.
View Anne’s academic profile HERE
Daniel Huber
Lecturer

Daniel Huber
Lecturer
Studies the fundamental properties and demographics of exoplanets by combining observations from ground-based telescopes and NASA Missions. He also conducts research on the structure and evolution of stars and stellar populations in our galaxy.
Helen Johnston
Associate Professor

Helen Johnston
Associate Professor
Stellar remnants like neutron stars and black holes, particularly those in binary star systems.
The supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies.
View Helen’s academic profile HERE
Sergio Leon-Saval
Associate Professor

Sergio Leon-Saval
Associate Professor
Sergio Leon-Saval develops optical and photonic instruments for cubesats, for astronomical telescopes and for commercial applications. He is Director of the SAIL labs, the experimental arm of SIfA.
View Sergio’s academic profile HERE
Geraint Lewis
Professor

Geraint Lewis
Professor
Geraint Lewis explores the influence of dark energy and dark matter on the evolution and ultimate fate of the Universe. He also uses gravitational lensing to probe the structure of dark matter in galaxies.
View Geraint’s academic profile HERE
Don Melrose
Emeritus Professor

Don Melrose
Emeritus Professor
Plasma astrophysics, especially coherent emission processes in astrophysical plasmas.
Quantum plasmadynamics.
Pulsar radio emission mechanism.
The theory of solar flares.
View Don’s academic profile HERE
Tara Murphy
Professor

Tara Murphy
Professor
Radio astronomy.
Radio transients and variables. Co-lead of the transients project on the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). Interest in gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, pulsars, flare stars, exoplanets.
Leads the Australian effort in radio follow-up of gravitational wave events.
Interdisciplinary work in machine learning and big data.
Teaches computational science and data science with a particular interest in online teaching and teaching innovation.
View Tara’s academic profile HERE
John O’Byrne
Associate Professor

John O’Byrne
Associate Professor
Astrophotonics.
Research using high resolution ground-based optical telescopes and interferometers, specifically Adaptive Optics, Optical Stellar Interferometry (including Sydney University Stellar Interferometer - SUSI), multi-band optical filters for astronomy, multi-wavelength imaging of nearby face-on spiral galaxies and measuring magnetic fields on the Sun.
Physics and Astronomy Education research.
View John’s academic profile HERE
Elaine Sadler
Professor

Elaine Sadler
Professor
Galaxy evolution; co-evolution of massive galaxies and their central black holes.
Low-luminosity radio galaxies: demographics, triggers and lifetime in the radio-galaxy phase.
Neutral hydrogen in and around early-type galaxies.
Searches for high-redshift galaxies.
Radio source populations at 20-100 GHz.
Supernovae and gamma-ray bursts.
Design and planning for next-generation telescopes.
View Elaine’s academic profile HERE
Peter Tuthill
Professor

Peter Tuthill
Professor
Development of novel technologies to image the theatres of stellar birth and death, revealing the cradles of solar system formation. Lead of a space telescope project to find exoplanets around stars in our immediate galactic neighbourhood.
View Peter’s academic profile HERE
Mike Wheatland
Professor

Mike Wheatland
Professor
Solar astrophysics.
Solar flares and solar activity, the statistics of that activity, coronal magnetic fields, solar-terrestrial relations, and Bayesian probability.
Modelling magnetic fields in the Sun's corona using nonlinear force-free fields.
Computational modelling.
View Mike’s academic profile HERE
Postdoctoral Research Staff
Dr Christopher Betters

Dr Christopher Betters
The development (design, construction, characterisation, and implementation) of cutting-edge compact optical instruments that harness the latest photonic technologies, originally for astronomical applications. Using techniques and methods I developed for astronomy to tackle a broader range of problems in academia and industry, specifically in remote earth observation and agriculture.
View Christophers’s academic profile HERE
Dr Courtney Crawford

Dr Courtney Crawford
Asteroseismology with particular interests in the modeling and analysis of post-merger stars, spectral classification, and spectral analysis, especially of exotic stellar variables.
Dr Laura Driessen

Dr Laura Driessen
A radio astronomer who works on searching for radio stars, image-plane radio variable and transient sources, and localising fast radio bursts. She works with the ASKAP and MeerKAT telescopes and is co-Project Scientist of the Variables and Slow Transients with ASKAP (VAST) survey. Laura is also part of the ThunderKAT and MeerTRAP collaborations. She is currently a Superstar of STEM.
Dr Madusha Gunawardhana

Dr Madusha Gunawardhana
The formation and evolution of massive stars, HII regions and star formation in the nearby Universe.
The stellar initial mass function, massive stellar populations and galaxy evolution.
The stellar population synthesis and photoionisation modelling.
Integral field spectroscopy using VLT-MUSE, SAMI and Hector surveys, and spectroscopy using GAMA and 4HS surveys.
Dr Michael Hayden

Dr Michael Hayden
Galactic Archaeology.
Stellar populations and chemodynamic structure of the Milky Way, along with galaxy evolution in general.
Has worked with the APOGEE, Gaia-ESO, and AMBRE surveys, and currently heavily involved with the GALAH project in ASTRO3D.
View Michael’s academic profile HERE
Dr Aditya JNHS

Dr Aditya JNHS
Understanding the role of neutral hydrogen and molecular gases in the development of AGN.
Redshift evolution of HI 21-cm absorbers, over z ~ 0 to 5.
Radio interferometric, single dish and VLBI spectroscopy.
Optical and millimetre synergies in understanding of HI 21-cm absorbers.
Dr Barnaby Norris

Dr Barnaby Norris
Instrumentation (specifically high contrast imaging, astrophotonics, interferometry and polarimetry), planet formation and stellar mass-loss
View Barnaby’s academic profile HERE
Dr May Gade Pedersen

Dr May Gade Pedersen
Asteroseismology of massive stars, with special focus on studying their internal element and angular momentum transport mechanisms.
Variable stars in OB associations and ensemble modelling of their pulsating stars.
Providing observational constraints for stellar structure and evolution models.
Dr Jesse van de Sande

Dr Jesse van de Sande
Integral field and near-infrared spectroscopic data of galaxies at low and high redshift.
How massive galaxies form, evolve, and die, with a strong affinity towards using stellar kinematics to understand mass assembly. Stellar kinematic measurements within the SAMI Galaxy Survey.
High-redshift galaxies (z=1-2) using X-Shooter and VIMOS-VLT as part of the LEGA-C survey.
The dynamics of Milky Way analogues with VLT-MUSE
View Jesse’s academic profile HERE
Dr Eckhart Spalding

Dr Eckhart Spalding
Developing and commissioning instrumentation for high-contrast infrared observations, particularly for understanding exoplanets and their formation environments. These techniques include exoplanet direct imaging with adaptive optics, and infrared interferometry.
Dr Thorsten Tepper García

Dr Thorsten Tepper García
Galaxy formation and evolution: Constrained numerical simulations, analytic models
Quasar absorption lines: Cosmological simulations, spectroscopy
View Thorsten's academic profile HERE
Dr Hyein Yoon

Dr Hyein Yoon
Neutral hydrogen (HI) absorption and emission line observations.
Environmental effects on gas and star formation in galaxies from voids to clusters
View Hyein’s academic profile HERE
Astralis-USyd Staff
Adam Taras
Optomechanical Engineer

Adam Taras
Optomechanical Engineer
Adam completed his B Engineer (Mechatronics with Space Major) / B Science (Physics) studies in 2022 at The University of Sydney. He is currently interested in the design and implementation of a novel fringe tracking instrument at VLTI as well as differentiable optical simulations for image reconstruction.
Dr Zinat Sathi
Optomechanical Engineer

Dr Zinat Sathi
Optomechanical Engineer
Zinat was awarded her Ph.D. from the Phonics and Optical Communications Group at UNSW where she was an Australian Leadership Awardee (2011-2015). Her research interests are special silica optical fibres and devices (rare-earthed doped optical fibres, fibre lasers and fibre amplifiers), spectral characterisation, photonic experiment design and implementation.
PhD Students
Gurashish Bhatia

Gurashish Bhatia
Current area of study/thesis title: "Innovative Instrumentation for Astronomical Spectroscopy"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor JULIA BRYANT
Filip Chatys

Filip Chatys
Current area of study/thesis title: "Asteroseismology"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TIMOTHY BEDDING
Emily Kerrison

Emily Kerrison
Current area of study/thesis title: "Probing young active galaxies at intermediate redshift"
For more information about this project, please contact this student's supervisor Elaine Sadler and Tara Murphy.
James Leung

James Leung
Current area of study/thesis title: "Searching for Radio Transients with The Australian Square Kilometre Array (ASKAP)"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY
Yaguang Li

Yaguang Li
Current area of study/thesis title: "Modelling subgiants in Kepler and TESS field"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TIMOTHY BEDDING
Lucinda Lilley

Lucinda Lilley
Current area of study/thesis title: "Applications of Machine Learning to Stellar Interferometry"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor PETER TUTHILL
Liroy Lourenco

Liroy Lourenco
Current area of study/thesis title: "Radio frequency interference mitigation for astronomy with phased array feeds"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY and MICHAEL WHEATLAND
Yifan Mai

Yifan Mai
Current area of study/thesis title: "The relationship between the rotation of SAMI galaxies and the motion of their neighbouring galaxies."
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor SCOTT CROOM.
Nabomita Roy Mutky

Nabomita Roy Mutky
Current area of study/thesis title: "Exploring kinematics through low and high order moment maps in N-body simulations of MW and MW like galaxies."
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor Joss Bland-Hawthorn and Thorsten Tepper Garcia.
Joshua Pritchard

Joshua Pritchard
Current area of study/thesis title: "A Transient Detection Pipeline for the ASKAP VAST Survey"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY
Gary Strain

Gary Strain
Current area of study/thesis title: "Automatic classification of Radio Transients using Machine Learning"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY
Sujeeporn (Susie) Tuntipong

Sujeeporn (Susie) Tuntipong
Current area of study/thesis title: "Understanding the Milky Way through studying analogues with integral field spectroscopy"
For more information about this project, please contact this student's supervisors SCOTT CROOM and JESSE VAN DE SANDE.
Di Wang

Di Wang
Current area of study/thesis title: "Connecting environment, gas and star formation in galaxies"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor SCOTT CROOM
Purmortal Zixian Wang

Purmortal Zixian Wang
Current area of study/thesis title: "The Chemodynamic History of the Milky Way"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor JONATHAN BLAND-HAWTHORN
Yuanming Wang

Yuanming Wang
Current area of study/thesis title: "Searching for Extreme Transients with ASKAP"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY
Ziteng Wang

Ziteng Wang
Current area of study/thesis title: "Radio follow-up of gravitational wave events"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor TARA MURPHY
Fiona Wei

Fiona Wei
Current area of study/thesis title: "Photonic Lantern as focal plane wavefront sensor"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor SERGIO LEON-SAVAL
Simon Weng

Simon Weng
Current area of study/thesis title: "Gas in and around Galaxies at intermediate redshift."
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor ELAINE SADLER
Alison Wong

Alison Wong
Current area of study/thesis title: "Neural Networks to Improve Adaptive Optics"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor PETER TUTHILL
Qingshan Yu

Qingshan Yu
Current area of study/thesis title: "FBGs in Multicore Optical Fibres for Astrophotonics"
For more information about this project, please contact this students supervisor SERGIO LEON-SAVAL