Speakers

Aashi Parikh

Aashi Parikh is a PhD candidate in the eDNA and Biomonitoring lab. Her expertise is with using environmental or eDNA - traces of DNA left behind by organisms in their physical environment - to answer ecological questions. She is currently studying the diet and gut microbiome of baleen whales.   

Briardo Llorente

Dr Briardo Llorente is the Chief Scientist of the Australian Genome Foundry and leads a research group at the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology, Macquarie University. Briardo is interested in solving big problems using synthetic biology while developing technologies to expand the boundaries of genomic, metabolic, and intercellular engineering. His group pursues eclectic research, from re-engineering symbiosis to enhancing biomanufacturing and developing better crops and medicines. Before joining the Centre, Briardo held a position as a CSIRO Synthetic Biology Future Science Fellow at Macquarie University. He was also a Marie Curie Fellow and a Juan de la Cierva Fellow at Barcelona's CRAG Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics. Briardo completed his PhD at the University of Buenos Aires and worked as a visiting researcher at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and the Salk Institute in California. 

Daniel Zucker

Daniel Zucker is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Macquarie University. Born in the US, he received his undergraduate degree from Harvard and his PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle. He came to Australia in 2009 as a joint Macquarie University and Australian Astronomical Observatory Lecturer, and soon after arriving helped launch the GALAH survey, a project to measure the compositions of a million stars in our Galaxy. In 2011 he was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to study how galaxies like the Milky Way grow through absorbing stars from their small satellites. More recently, he co-founded the S5 survey, an international collaboration to map stellar streams in the outskirts of our Galaxy with the Anglo-Australian Telescope in Coonabarabran, NSW, and the focus of this talk. 

James Coulson

James Coulson is a Research Software Developer at Australian Astronomical Optics. He has recently graduated from Macquarie University with a Bachelor of Cyber Security and has an interest in both developing and securing software. When he's not coding, he likes to make and listen to all types of music, play Magic: the Gathering and hang out with his cat. 

Jon Lawrence

Jon Lawrence is a Distinguished Professor and Head of Instrumentation at AAO-Macquarie. He leads a large team of scientists, managers, engineers, and technicians working on an array of instrument projects for the world’s premier telescopes. These projects combine multiple disciplines in mechanical, optical, electronics, and software engineering with photonics and optical physics, to create leading-edge technologies to capture and analyse light from astronomical sources.

Meghna Mukesh Menon

Meghna Menon is a final-year PhD student at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on the nucleosynthesis of single and binary low-mass evolved stars. For this, she employs high-resolution optical spectroscopy across the globe to obtain star spectra and accurately measure the elemental abundance through meticulous spectral analysis techniques. She also intermingles observations with state-of-the-art stellar models, to pin down the complexity of stellar nucleosynthesis. Her ultimate goal is to understand the production mechanisms of the elements essential for life.

Miguel Angel Gonzalez Bolivar 

Miguel is an astrophysicist and software developer. He finished his PhD in the Physics postgraduate program at Macquarie University in 2024. He specializes in creating computer simulations of interactions between binary stars and asymmetrical planetary nebulae. Currently, he is working at Australian Astronomical Optics at Macquarie University as a software developer, creating and maintaining data pipelines for observatories and other astronomical instruments. 

Nadya Darmawan

Nadya Darmawan is a Research Software Programmer at the Australian Astronomical Optics, Macquarie University. She has a Bachelor of Data Science & Decisions from UNSW and is a former Machine Learning Engineer at a Sydney-based computer vision AI company that specialises in Edge facial recognition software. 

Nicholas Borsato

Nicholas Borsato is a PhD student specializing in the study of ultra-hot Jupiters, the hottest type of exoplanet known. He conducts his research using large telescopes on earth, timing observations precisely to capture light passing through these distant worlds as if through a window. This process allows him to analyze the atmospheres and identify exotic materials within. Notably, Nicholas was the first to discover terbium (Tb), a rare earth element, in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter KELT-9b. His innovative techniques have also expanded the capabilities of smaller telescopes for studying exoplanet atmospheres. An active participant in science communication, Nicholas has hosted "The Meridian," an astronomy podcast produced by Lund University, and has conducted workshops for high school students eager to explore the field of research. While his primary focus is on extreme and exotic exoplanets, Nicholas is ultimately driven by the quest to discover Earth 2.0—not as a replacement for our own planet, but as a catalyst for further cosmic exploration. 

Nuwanthika Fernando

Dr. Nuwanthika Fernando is a Research Software Engineer, working on data processing software for astronomical telescopes at the Australian Astronomical Optics- Macquarie University. She grew up in Sri Lanka, and completed her PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Sydney. 

Paige Erpf

Paige graduated from The University of Queensland where she did both her undergraduate (Zoology and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and Ph.D. (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology). She is currently a synthetic biologist at Macquarie University in the ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology. As a post-doctoral researcher in the centre, she is focusing on the development of the first synthetic yeast strain and engineering microbes to work together to help tackle problems arising from climate change. 

For the last eight years Paige has specialised in genetic engineering of both industrial and pathogenic yeast. During this time, she has mentored several undergraduate and post graduate students in the lab, along with high school students on placements. She guest lectures in several courses, topics including synthetic biology, microbiology, and ribosome translation. She is also a committee member for JAMS Sydney, an organisation devoted to the organisation of monthly seminars and annual symposium on all things microbes. 

In 2023 Paige made her debut in Science comedy, first gig at Enmore Theatre Wildflower Bar and again at the Sydney Fringe Festival. She starred in the 2023 National Science Quiz taking victory and avoided being slimed on television. Given her extensive outreach, Paige is passionate about science and sharing her research and experiences with friends, family, and strangers. 

Pradosh Barun Das

Pradosh Barun Das is an international Ph.D. student in Astrophysics & Astronomy at Macquarie University. His work involves studying Galactic Archaeology of the Milky Way (GALAH Survey), as well as investigating chemical abundances of the streams in the S5 Survey (Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey). Currently, he serves as the Student Representative on “The Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA)” Council.

Rami Mandow

Rami Mandow (he/him) is a second-year PhD candidate / pulsar astronomer with Macquarie University & Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO – working as part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project. As part of his work, Rami uses Australia’s iconic Parkes radio telescope (Murriyang) to study these exotic objects known as pulsars, looking into their ongoing stability in his research work. Rami is also an established science communicator, heading up one of Australia’s most well-known space and astronomy community news platforms – SpaceAustralia.com.

Richard McDermid

Professor Richard McDermid leads an active research group studying the stellar populations and dynamics of galaxies in order to understand how they have formed and evolved over the lifetime of the Universe. He is Director of the Macquarie University Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre, and leader of the Macquarie Node of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D). He has been awarded 'high citation' status by Clarivate Web of Science for 2021 and 2022, and was recently recognised as the leading national research contributor for astronomy in The Australian’s Research Awards 2023. 

Sally Hurst 

Sally is a researcher with Macquarie’s Paleobiology lab, and focuses on the interactions between humans (both ancient and modern) and fossils. She’s been a science communicator for over 8 years, working with museums, schools, and universities around the world to discuss dinosaurs, fossil finds, and mysteries of the past.  

Stuart Ryder

Dr Stuart Ryder is an Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, and the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre at Macquarie University. His research interests span supernovae and Fast Radio Bursts, but his passion is chasing solar eclipses, having travelled to more than a dozen since 1991.