SAO Instructors

SAO is taught by research-active astronomers from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and by PhD-qualified astronomers from various institutions and observatories around the world.

To read about some of our past and current instructors, and their "astronomical inspiration", click here.

Introductory Units

  • AST80005 Exploring the Solar System: Glenn Kacprzak

    • Prof. Glenn Kacprzak. Prof. Kacprzak's research explores how galaxies form and evolve by studying the circumgalactic medium, the vast reservoir of gas surrounding galaxies. He uses some of the world’s largest telescopes to investigate how gas accretion, outflows and feedback regulate the growth of galaxies over cosmic time.

  • AST80006 (co-coded AST20003 for undergrads) Galaxies and their Place in the Universe: Michelle Cluver

    • Assoc. Prof. Michelle Cluver joined Swinburne in 2018 as an ARC Future Fellow. Her current research focus is on the evolution of galaxies within groups, a key environment in the transformation of galaxies from star-forming disks to bulge-dominated, relatively quiescent systems. She is an expert user of mid-infrared data of galaxies from the WISE space telescope, and its calibration for stellar mass and star formation rate measurements, and co-PI of the 4MOST Hemisphere Survey.

  • AST80017 Studies in Space Exploration: Profs Adam Deller and Ryan Shannon

    • Prof. Adam Deller studied electronic engineering at Swinburne University as an undergraduate before receiving a PhD in astrophysics from Swinburne in 2009. Since then, he has been awarded postdoctoral fellowships at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (www.nrao.edu) and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy before taking up a staff astronomer position at ASTRON and then returning Swinburne as a staff member. His research focuses on the physics of compact objects (neutron stars and black holes) primarily by way of observations with radio telescopes. A current focus is uncovering the origin of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), which are enormously powerful millisecond-duration radio flashes that appear to be generated outside our own Galaxy. Closer to home, he also studies neutron stars within the Milky Way galaxy, both in the form of radio pulsars, and X-ray binaries (where the neutron star is accreting gas from a companion object). His specialty is performing astrometry on these systems, using radio telescopes spread across continents to make carefully calibrated images with extremely high angular resolution. This links with his interest in radio astronomy instrumentation: he has developed the "DiFX" distributed correlator that is used by a number of operational radio interferometers, and is involved with a number of working groups contributing to the design of the forthcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA). He has previously instructed both Exploring the Solar System and Computational Astrophysics.

    An expert in time-domain radio astronomy, Assoc. Prof. Ryan Shannon completed his PhD in astronomy at Cornell University, graduating in 2011. Ryan then relocated to Australia (a world leading country in radio astronomy), first holding research fellowship positions at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility, then jointly with CSIRO and International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research at Curtin University before joining Swinburne. Ryan's main research interests are in studying pulsars and fast radio bursts, both to understand these extreme objects, and use them as astrophysics tools. For example, observations of an array of ultra stable millisecond pulsars can be used to ultra low frequency gravitational waves from binary supermassive black holes, while fast radio bursts can be used to find and map the faint hot gas in the intergalactic medium. Ryan is a principal investigator of the CRAFT project, which uses the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder telescope to search for pinpoint the positions of fast radio bursts and is project scientist for the MeerTime large survey project, which monitors pulsars with the MeerKAT array in South Africa to undertake tests of fundamental physics and search for ultra low frequency gravitational waves.

  • AST80001 (co-coded AST20002 for undergrads) Astrobiology and the Origins of Life: Glenn Kacprzak

    • As of 2024, AST80004, AST80005 and AST80006 are compulsory. To complete the Graduate Certificate (4 units), with either AST80001 or AST80017 is required.
    For 2025, the latest arrangements can be seen here.

Advanced Units

  • AST80002 Astrophotography & CCD Imaging: Duncan Forbes

    • Prof. Duncan Forbes has been a faculty member in the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing since August 2000. A New Zealander, who did his PhD at Cambridge, Duncan has also spent time at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Lick Observatory in California and most recently as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham in England. Over the years, he has worked on various aspects of galaxy evolution with a particular fondness for globular clusters in external galaxies, especially Ultra Diffuse Galaxies.

  • AST80003 (co-coded AST30002 for undergrads) Cosmology and the Large-scale Structure of the Universe: Sara Webb (Semester 1, 2026)

    • Dr Sara Webb harnesses AI to explore the Universe, focusing on anomaly detection and big data. She works with optical telescope data and machine learning to study cosmic explosions and rapidly flaring red dwarf stars. Sara also develops methods to detect fast transients and space debris. In addition to her research, she leads Swinburne’s student space challenge programs, sending student-led experiments to the International Space Station. Through media and outreach, Sara shares her passion for astronomy, AI, and space science with the public.

  • AST80015 Planetary Science: Alister Graham (see above)

Major Project units

  • AST80011 Major Project: Computational Astrophysics: Adam Deller (see above)

  • AST80013 Major Project - Observational Astronomy: Jeffrey Cooke

    • Prof. Jeff Cooke obtained his PhD from the University of California, San Diego, and was a Research Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, and Caltech. He joined the Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing in 2010 and has been a faculty member since 2016. Jeff works on a wide range of topics from high-redshift galaxies to absorption-line systems, to transient astronomy and more. His transient astronomy work includes leading programs such as deep surveys with ground- and space-based telescopes to detect the most distant supernovae and other exotic transients in the early Universe, including the deaths of the first generation of stars to have formed after the Big Bang, searches for counterparts to gravitational waves (kilonovae), and the Deeper, Wider, Faster program that coordinates over 100 telescopes located on every continent and in space operating at all wavelength regimes to search for the fastest bursts in the Universe (those with millisecond-to-days duration). He also leads the development of astronomical instrumentation and the application of Industry 4.0 technologies to 8-10m-class optical/infrared instruments and observatories.