Melbourne Astrophysics Career Paths

Career Paths

Career paths of past and present members of the University of Melbourne Astrophysics Group. Given in brackets is the last year each person spent here.

Post-doctoral Research Fellows

1. Dr Matthew O’Dowd

2. Dr Mark Dijkstra (2007) has moved on to a new postdoc position at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics working with the Institute of Theory and Computation.

3. Dr Kathie Manson (2006) has left astronomy and moved over to the neuropsychiatry department at the University of Melbourne.

4. Dr Randall Wayth (2006), rwayth "at" cfa.harvard.edu has moved to greener pastures at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the USA.

5. Dr David Barnes (2006), dbarnes "at" astro.swin.edu.au is now a senior research fellow in visualisation and astronomy research at Swinburne University.

6. Dr Stuart Wyithe (2005), swyithe "at" unimelb.edu.au has been appointed to the new Astrophysics Faculty position in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne

7. Dr Martin Zwaan (2003), mzwaan "at" eso.org is currently a Research Fellow at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Garching.

8. Dr Alicia Oshlack (2003), aoshlack"at"unimelb.edu.au now has a Research Fellowship with the Bioinformatics Group at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) at the University of Melbourne.

9. Dr Michael Drinkwater (2002), mjd"at"physics.uq.edu.au has a position as an Assoc. Prof. in Physics at the University of Queensland. He is also the head of Physics.

10. Dr. Erwin de Blok (1999), edeblok"at"anu.edu.au won a Bolton Fellowship to pursue research of his own choice at the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF). He then became a PPARC Advanced Research Fellow at the University of Cardiff, UK. And he is now working at Mount Stromlo, ANU. He is now a professor in Astronomy at the University of Cape Town.

11. Prof. Matthew Bailes (1997), mbailes"at"swin.edu.au became the director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology.

12. Dr. Matthew Britton (1997), mbritton"at"gps.caltech.edu also joined the Astrophysics and Supercomputing Group at Swinburne University of Technology. He then became a Senior Postdoctoral Scholar at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Currently, he is a member of their Research Staff.

13. Dr. Paul Francis (1997), pfrancis"at"mso.anu.edu.au became a lecturer/research fellow in astrophysics at the Australian National University's Astrophysical Theory Centre. He is now an Assoc. Prof and was an Australian Gemini Scientist.

14. Dr. Margaret Mazzolini (1996), mmazzolini@swin.edu.au worked as a lecturer at the School of Physics at La Trobe University and then as a senior lecturer in the Astrophysics and Supercomputing Group. She is currently the Educational Development Coordinator and Deputy Head of School (Academic) for Swinburne's School of Biophysical Sciences and Electrical Engineering .

15. Dr. Saul Caganoff (1994), made the lucrative leap into computing. He is currently the Business Services Manager (South Asia) for TIBCO Software.

PhD Students

Dr O. Ivy Wong (2007) ivy.wong"at"yale.edu is at Yale University.
Dr Meryl Waugh (2006)
Dr. Donald Payne (2006), is currently writing up papers with Dr. Andrew Melatos here at the University of Melbourne as well as working as a volunteer in the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
Dr. Jamie Stevens (2005), jamie.stevens"at"utas.edu.au is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tasmania.
Dr. Randall Wayth (2005) has moved to greener pastures at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the USA.
Dr. Cathy Trott (2005), is now working in medical research in Boston.
Dr. Arna Karick (2004), (akarick"at"igpp.ucllnl.org) is now a postdoctoral research fellow at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

8. Dr. Emma Ryan-Weber (2004), (eryan"at"ast.cam.ac.uk) is now a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Cambridge.

9. Dr Matthew O’Dowd (2003)

Dr Alicia Oshlack (2003), aoshlack"at"unimelb.edu.au had a research fellowship in the Astrophysics Group. (see above)
Dr. Martin Meyer (2003), martinm"at"stsci.edu was a postdoctal researcher at Space Telescope Science Institute and is now at University of Western Australia in the Astrophysics Group.

12. Dr. Stuart Wyithe (2002), swyithe "at"unimelb.edu.au has been appointed to the new Astrophysics Faculty position in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne

Dr. Matthew Whiting (2001), matthew.whiting”at”csiro.au had a Chancellors Fellowship at UNSW and is now working at ATNF.
Dr. Virginia Kilborn(2001), vkilborn"at"astro.swin.edu.au worked at Jodrell Bank Observatory on the Northern Multibeam (HIJASS) survey. She then went on to do a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre for Supercomputing and Astrophysics at Swinburne University of Technology. She is now a Senior Lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology.
Dr. Michael Brown (2000) was a research associate at the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) in Tuscon, working on the NOAO Deep Wide Field Survey. He was a Russell Fellow at Peyton Hall in Princeton, New Jersey and is now a lecturer at Monash University Physics.
Dr. Maurizio Toscano (1999), m.toscano"at"unimelb.edu.au did a Dip. Ed. in 2001, and taught in the School of Physics in 2002. He was teaching secondary Physics at Melbourne Girls College for a few years before landing a tenured position at the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne.
Dr. Daniel Mortlock (1999), mortlock"at"astro.ic.ac.uk went to the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) at the University of Cambridge to work on the PLANCK microwave anisotropy project. He had a PPARC Fellowship at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge and is now at Imperial College.
Dr. Chris Fluke (1999), cfluke"at"swin.edu.au went to the Astrophysics and Supercomputing Group at Swinburne University of Technology to continue his astronomical research as well as working with the super-computing facility there.
Dr. David Barnes (1998), dbarnes "at" astro.swin.edu.au took up a job as an AIPS++ programmer, specialising in data visualisation and analysis, at Australia Telescope National Facility in Sydney. He had a research fellowship in the Astrophysics Group and is now a senior research fellow in visualization and astronomy research at Swinburne University.
Dr. Frank Masci (1997), fmasci"at"ipac.caltech.edu has returned to astronomy as a staff scientist working on the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission at IPAC / Caltech.

Masters Students

Travis Stenborg
Alpha Mastrano (2006) completed his MSc. with flying colours and will be continuing his PhD with the group.
Ivy Wong (2003) ivy.wong"at"yale.edu completed a PhD at the University of Melbourne.
Malte Marquarding (2000), Malte.Marquarding"at"csiro.au now has a job at Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) writing software for computer visualisation.
Brett Holman (1997), b.holman"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au moved from astronomy to computing (not a huge jump in one sense, as most astronomy is done on computer these days), working as the information technology (IT) manager for the School of Earth Sciences and the Astro Group at the University of Melbourne. Brett has also completed honours (H1) in history at the University of Melbourne.
Michael Brown (1996), mbrown"at"noao.edu completed a PhD in the Astrophysics Group. (see above)
Robert Schmidt (1996), rschmidt"at"astro.physik.uni-potsdam.de went to Germany to do a PhD in astrophysics at Astrophysics Institute of Potsdam, just outside Berlin. He then went to Cambridge to do a postdoc with Andy Fabian. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Potsdam.

Honours students

1. Mark Bennett (2007), bennettm"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.

2. Christina Magoulas (2007), cmagoulas"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.

3. Stephen Petrie (2007), spetrie"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.

4. Maxim Priymak (2007), mpriymak"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.

5. Andrea Ruff (2007), aruff"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.

6. AJ Hayton (2006) has moved away from the astrophysics group and is currently applying for jobs and/or PhD positions at other universities.

7. Sebastian Saliba (2006) has decided to do his PhD in the Optics group.

John Haasz (2006)
Anthony Van Eysden (2006) stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Paul Geil (2006) stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Christine Chung (2005) stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Sally Langford (2005) stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Adrian Melchiori (2004) stayed on in the astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Melissa Wals (2004) is currently working on her MSc with Theoretical Particle Physics & the Maths department.
Ned Taylor (2003) is completing a PhD at the University of Leiden
Kirsty Rhook (2003) is completing a PhD at the University of Cambridge
Caroline Andrzejewski (2003) is now a part time production assistant at Blackwell Publishing
Tobias Locsei (2003) is currently completing Part III of the Mathematical Tripos at the University of Cambridge
Michael Pierce(2002), mpierce"at"astro.swin.edu.au went on to do a PhD in the Astrophysics and Supercomputing Group at Swinburne University of Technology.
Dione Scheltus (2002) went on to do an internship at the Gemini Observatory in Hilo, Hawaii. After taking some time off to travel around Europe she then completed a DipEd at the University of Melbourne. Dione is now a public servant in Canberra.
Ivy Wong (2001) stayed on in the Astrophysics Group to do an MSc (see above)

22. Petra Majewski (2001), Petra.Majewski"at"gmx.de completed a PhD in low temperature physics at the Walther-Meissner Institut (Munich) and is now working at Qimonda as an "Expert on emerging memory technologies" (her official title).

23. Chermelle Engel (2000), left the Astrophysics Group and is now doing research at the Bureau of Meteorology.

24. Jamie Stevens (2000), stayed on in the Astrophysics group to do a PhD.

Randall Wayth (2000), stayed on in the Astrophysics group to do a PhD.
Cathy Trott (2000), stayed on in the Astrophysics Group to do a PhD.
Donald Payne (2000), djbpayne"at"unimelb.edu.au stayed on in the Astrophysics Group to do a PhD.
Martin Meyer (1999), martinm"at"stsci.edu stayed on in the Astrophysics Group to do a PhD on the Tully-Fisher relation. (see above)
Emma Ryan (1999) stayed on in the Astrophysics Group to do a PhD.
Daniel Kubas (1998), kubas"at"astro.physik.uni-potsdam.de went to Germany to do a PhD in gravitational lensing, at the Astrophysics Institute of Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
Jess O'Brien (1998), jobrien"at"mso.anu.edu.au went on to do a PhD at the Research School for Astronomy and Astrophysics (former Mount Stromlo) at the Australian National University.
Alicia Oshlack (1998), aoshlack"at"unimelb.edu.au stayed with the Astrophysics Group to complete a PhD on quasars. (see above)
Stuart Wyithe (1997), swyithe"at"unimelb.edu.au stayed with the Astrophysics Group to complete a PhD. (see above)
Virginia Kilborn (1996), vkilborn"at"astro.swin.edu.au also stayed with the Astrophysics Group to complete a PhD. (see above)
Rachel Mendham (1996) did a variety of (non-astronomical) jobs before she moved to Canberra to work for the Australian Government, initially doing cryptography. She is now doing a Masters in Women's Studies.
Chris Fluke (1995), cfluke"at"swin.edu.au went on to complete a PhD with the Astrophysics Group. (see above)
Matthew O'Dowd (1995) did a PhD with the group, doing most of his work at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA. (see above)
Eileen O'Hely (1995) moved to Sydney to do a PhD with the Department of Astrophysics and Optics at University of New South Wales. She now has a job with IBM.
Maurizio Toscano (1995), toscano"at"mgc.vic.edu.au went on to do a PhD in the School of Physics. (see above)
Michael Brown (1994) went on to complete a MSc in the School of Physics, then a PhD. (see above)
Daniel Mortlock (1994), mortlock"at"astro.ic.ac.uk (1994) went on to complete a PhD with the Astrophysics Group. (see above)
Janice Long (1994), j.long"at"conservation.org finished a Masters in Environmental Science at the University of London and now works for the World Conservation Union.
Daya Rawson (1994) began a PhD at Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, becoming a member of the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to determine the value of Hubble's constant. Sadly he passed away on November 29, 1998.
Brett Holman (1993), b.holman"at"physics.unimelb.edu.au went on to complete a MSc in the Astrophysics Group. (see above)
Frank Masci (1993), fmasci"at"ipac.caltech.edu went on to complete a PhD with the Astrophysics group. (see above)
Kiet Ly (1992) managed to escape the clutches of the astophysics group, and we don't know what he's up to . . .

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