Dr. Rebecca McElroy is a postdoc at the Max Plank Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. She works on integral field spectroscopic data, in particular MUSE, focusing on nearby star forming galaxies, and local AGN. 

​

Rebecca completed her PhD at The University of Sydney on integral field spectroscopic observations of active galactic nuclei - investigating how supermassive black holes and the galaxies they live in interact and co-evolve. Her most recent work is on a serendipitously discovered two-time changing look AGN, 'The Close AGN Reference Survey: Mrk 1018 returns to the shadows after 30 years as a Seyfert 1'.

Dr. Sarah Reeves is a science communicator, currently working at the Museum of Applied Arts and Science (Powerhouse Museum).

Sarah completed her PhD at the University of Sydney, studying the evolution of gas in galaxies as part of the ASKAP-FLASH team. Since 2014 she has worked as an astronomy guide at Sydney Observatory, where she enjoys sharing her love of astronomy with the public, and in 2016 she took up a position as assistant curator (science) at the Powerhouse Museum. She is passionate about increasing public engagement and understanding of science, and is interested in the role that museums can play in this process. As a curator she has worked on numerous science exhibitions, for both adults and children. She also runs the Museum's blog Inside the Collection.

Kirsten Banks is a proud Wiradjuri woman with an undeniable passion for space and astronomy. She is officially a physicist from the University of New South Wales and researches  the role of planets in Aboriginal Astronomy.

​

​

Isabel Colman is a PhD candidate at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy, where she studies stars as a member of the asteroseismology group. Her thesis work is centred around exploring the many uses of raw pixel-level data from NASA's Kepler and TESS space telescopes and demystifying mixed signals in crowded areas of the sky. She is currently working on a method of photometry (measuring the brightness of stars) optimised for the study of variable stellar phenomena affected by crowding, and she is involved in the international asteroseismology community's efforts to be ready to study the stars observed by TESS, which launched in May. She is one of the tutors for PHYS1500 this semester.

Dougal Dobie is a PhD candidate at the Sydney Institute for Astronomy where he studies the dynamic radio sky as part of the radio transients group led by A. Prof. Tara Murphy. His work focuses on searching for radio emission from high-energy astrophysical events such as neutron star mergers and gamma ray bursts. Over the past year he has been involved in the follow-up of the first detected neutron star merger, GW170817, as part of a global collaboration of the worlds leading radio telescopes. He is one of the lab tutors for PHYS1500 this semester.

Sam is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii searching for giant planets orbiting giant stars. He is also interested in better understanding stellar variability at all timescales, and combining ground-based and space-based telescope data to robustly characterize star and planet populations. 

​

Sam hopes to help further our understanding of the mysteries behind stellar and planetary evolution, and how they affect our planet's past, present, and future. In his free time, he enjoys making music, attempting to surf, and spreading his enthusiasm about astronomy to others.