Adventures in wide-field astronomy
Professor Elaine Sadler
School of Physics
Universirty of Sydney
6 July 2010, 8:00 pm
Physics Lecture Theatre 1,
University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay
The Canadian
astronomer Sydney van den Bergh predicted a decade ago that "The
astronomy of the 21st century will be dominated by computer-based
manipulation of huge homogeneous surveys of various types of
astronomical objects." In many ways this has come true, and
I hope to share with you some of the excitement of the large,
wide-field astronomical surveys in which I and my colleagues have been
involved. I will talk about some of the challenges of this kind
of work, as well as showing how wide-field astronomy can provide unique
insights into the evolution of galaxies and their central black holes
over timescales of billions of years. Finally, I will give a
glimpse of future developments in wide-field radio astronomy.
SPEAKER PROFILE:
Elaine Sadler completed an undergraduate physics
degree at the University of Queensland, followed by a PhD in astronomy
from the Australian National University. She held postdoctoral
fellowships at the European Southern Observatory in Germany and Kitt
Peak National Observatory in the United States before returning to
Australia in 1988 to take up a research position at the
Anglo-Australian Observatory.
One of her main research interests
is galaxy evolution, using large observational data sets to study how
galaxies form and change on timescales of billions of years.
Elaine
is currently an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow in the School of
Physics at the University of Sydney. She is also president of Division
VIII (galaxies and the universe) of the International Astronomical
Union, and chair of the National Committee for Astronomy.
2010 Harley Wood Lecture of the Astronomical Society of Australia.