Speakers

Mark Casali

I have spent time as an astronomer working in Hawaii, as an instrument scientist for ground and space projects at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh and I was Head of instrumentation and Research and Development at the European Southern Observatory in Munich. 

I was Director of Australian Astronomical Optics at MQ university from 2019 to 2024 and am now an instrument scientist within AAO.  

Jo Dawson

Associate Professor Jo Dawson is a radio astronomer working at Macquarie University and CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. She did her undergraduate degree in astrophysics at University College London, her PhD in Nagoya University (Japan), and worked as a researcher at the University of Tasmania and CSIRO before coming to Macquarie in 2014. 

She uses radio telescopes in Australia and the world to map the ultra-diffuse clouds of gas and dust between the stars, including enormous "superbubbles" hundreds of lightyears across, blown by the dying explosions of the most massive stars. 

Aksita Deo

Aksita (she/her) is a Masters student at Macquarie University (MQU) currently focusing on planet formation in disks around post-AGB stars under her supervisors Devika Kamath and Kateryna Andrych. She completed her undergraduate degree in advanced science at MQU in 2022, having earned three summer internships at MQU, AAO, and CSIRO, working on a variety of topics such as maser variability, galaxy formation and pulsars. 

She is also passionate about education and science outreach, being social media executive for the MQ Physics & Astronomy Society, often giving school presentations, and starting her own street library. 

Toon De Prins

Hi, I'm Toon. I'm a joint PhD student between Macquarie University and KU Leuven, a uni in my home country, Belgium. This is also where I did my bachelor's in physics and my master's of astronomy and astrophysics, from which I graduated with greatest distinction. 

Now, I'm on a personal fellowship from the Research Foundation - Flanders to reveal the secrets of giant discs of dust and gas surrounding dying twin stars. Specifically, I create images using a technique called optical interferometry, in order to hunt for any signs of interaction between the discs, the central stars, and possible planets embedded within. 

Ceridwen Dovey

Dr Ceridwen Dovey is a fiction writer, science writer and filmmaker with a special interest in emotions and ethics in outer space. She's currently a Research Fellow at Macquarie University and a Powerhouse Artistic Associate. 

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Claudia Fava

Claudia is an undergraduate student studying a Bachelor of Science majoring in Astronomy and Astrophysics and Chemistry. She has been captivated by the night sky since a young age. Countless nights spent stargazing ignited her interest in the vastness of space and the origin of elements in the universe, linking her passion for Chemistry with Astronomy. 

Throughout her academic journey, Claudia actively engages in research projects, including work on Chemical Depletion with Dr. Devika Kamath. Claudia also runs @mqphysastro, the social media page for Physics and Astronomy, with the goal to inspire future scientists. 

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. 

Matt Grech

Matt Grech is a self-described Swiss Army Knife with a background in writing, cinematography, photography, editing, animation and graphic design. 

After working in the advertising and marketing space for over 10 years he joins the Archival Futures Collective with a particular passion for mid-century technology and innovation. Rubik's cube novice. 

Dani Guzman

Dr. Dani Guzman is an Instrument Scientist at Australian Astronomical Optics – Macquarie University. He has over 20 years of experience in scientific instrumentation, having worked with scientific detectors, astronomical instruments, adaptive optics and medical devices. 

He pioneered the use of artificial intelligence in adaptive optics for astronomy and has designed and built a number of cryogenic systems for visible and infrared instruments. .  

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Anilkumar Mailvaganam

Anilkumar Mailvaganam is a PhD candidate in astrophysics at Macquarie University, originally from Malaysia. His research is focused on the haze in the sky, the so called dust which impedes our view of the heavens. He studies how this dust influences the formation and evolution of galaxies using 3D spectroscopic data. Anil is passionate about uncovering the hidden role of dust in the universe which forms galaxies, stars, planets, and even you!

Maksym Mohorian

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, where I explore the strange and beautiful afterlives of stars. 

My research focuses on how dying binary stars interact with surrounding discs of leftover material—environments that may offer one final, fleeting chance for new planets to form.  

Ben Pope

I'm an Associate Professor in Statistical Data Science at Macquarie University, leading an Astrostatistics Research Group. I research extrasolar planets - planets around other stars - and focus on developing and applying new data science approaches for detecting and characterizing them. 

I completed my doctorate in 2017 at Oxford, and from 2017-20 was a NASA Sagan Fellow at the NYU Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics and Center for Data Science. From 2021-2024 I was a Lecturer then Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics and DECRA Fellow at the University of Queensland.  

Ali Pourmand

Ali Pourmand is a first-year PhD student in theoretical astrophysics at Macquarie University, where he studies how planets can form around dying stars. He began his academic journey in Iran and later completed a master’s degree at the University of Alberta, using simulations to explore the evolution of binary star systems. 

His current research focuses on the physics of planet formation in the disks around evolved stars.

Gabriella Quattropani

Gabriella Quattropani is a PhD student at Macquarie University, studying galaxies in galaxy clusters. She completed her Bachelors in Advanced Science in 2020 and Masters of Research at Macquarie in 2022. 

She has a passion for astronomy outreach and education, being a part of the Macquarie Association for Astronomy since 2017. She also holds a unique position as a Graduate Teaching Associate, where half her time is dedicated to teaching astronomy and the other half her PhD research. 

Angel Rafael Lopez Sanchez

Associate Professor Ángel R. López-Sánchez is an astrophysicist and science communicator working at Macquarie University (MQ). He is a recognised expert in the study of how the gas is converted into stars in galaxies and how this affects galaxy evolution.

After completing his PhD Thesis in Astrophysics at the prestigious “Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute” (Spain), in 2007 he joined CSIRO "Astronomy and Space Science” with a research project involving radio observations of gas-rich galaxies at the Australian Telescope Compact Array. In 2011 he joined the Australian Astronomical Observatory and Macquarie University combining astronomy instrumentation support, research, lecturing, and outreach. He was appointed as full-time research academic at the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University in May 2023, where he is now the Director of the MQ Astronomy Observatory.  

He is a globally recognised science communicator, with visibility in Spanish and Australian printed, broadcast, and social media. He is also a passionate amateur astronomer that uses his own equipment for capturing the beauty of the Cosmos. His stunning astronomy time-lapse videos and photos have received +1/2 million views in YouTube and have been seen in textbooks, TV channels in USA, Australia and Spain and science museums worldwide. 

Michaela Smith 

Michaela Smith is a second-year PhD student from the School of Life Science at UTS and the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. Her research investigates how weightlessness affects human lung cells – findings that could be essential for long-haul space missions. 

Using specialised equipment to simulate zero gravity and microgravity conditions, she can study human cellular responses without leaving Earth. Her work has potential applications for both protecting astronaut health and advancing treatments for respiratory diseases. 

Ryan White

I am a HDR student at Macquarie University studying the binary interactions of massive stars right on their deathbed. 

On previous projects I've looked at how we quantify time dilation in the distant universe with exploding stars, merging binary black holes in the centre of galaxies, and how we can discover new periodic radio stars in our Milky Way.  

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.