Our featured guest for this special 100th episode is Dr Vanessa Moss, astronomer and Head of CSIRO’s ASKAP Science Operations. CSIRO is Australia’s leading science organisation and ASKAP is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope array in Western Australia.
Listen: https://soundcloud.com/astrophiz/astrophiz100-dr-vanessa-moss
Vanessa tells us about her PhD which was also a joint exercise both at the University of Sydney and with the CSIRO. ‘The Galactic ecosystem: Outflow and infall in the halo of the Milky Way” She explains how workloads differ in Honours studies and PhD research and her work as an astronomy guide at Sydney Observatory.
WE hear about her move over to Dwingeloo in the Netherlands to work as a telescope scientist with ASTRON, working with the Apertif upgrade on the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope and LOFAR, then her return to Australia to work as Head of ASKAP Science Operations at CSIRO.
We look at the Big Data issues growing in radio astronomy and her vision to harness VR as a way of visualising both data, workflow and instrument training. We hear about her current Milky Way Halo research, the SEAFOG project and working on the FLASH team.
Vanessa’s outreach is prolific and highlighted by her Zootopia work and a recent TEDx presentation on the importance of curiosity.
To sign off we give a big shoutout to The Skyentists Podcast and Rami Mandow at SpaceAustraliaDOTcom
A fabulous episode! Enjoy!
Astrophiz: An Astronomy Podcast 