Uncovering the First Stars and Galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope. This project aims to find "First Light": the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. Understanding the astrophysics of the first galaxies, their explosive growth, and how they set ablaze the remaining gas in the Universe have long been among the most important unsolved mysteries of astronomy. Decades in the making, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021 marks a watershed moment. T ....Uncovering the First Stars and Galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope. This project aims to find "First Light": the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. Understanding the astrophysics of the first galaxies, their explosive growth, and how they set ablaze the remaining gas in the Universe have long been among the most important unsolved mysteries of astronomy. Decades in the making, the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in December 2021 marks a watershed moment. This project uses privileged access to the revolutionary space telescope to find "First Light" and contribute to rewriting the first chapter of our cosmic history. The project is expected to significantly enhance Australia's international standing through leadership in use of the world's flagship scientific facility.Read moreRead less
Watching planets grow in real time. This project will conduct the first in-depth examination of the atmospheres of newly born small planets around other stars, yielding a better understanding of how planets evolve early in their lives. The atmosphere of our Earth is its most distinguishing feature. Key outcomes of this project include unveiling the mechanisms that drive the erosion of early planetary atmospheres, leading to a better understanding of the processes that sculpt all planets, includi ....Watching planets grow in real time. This project will conduct the first in-depth examination of the atmospheres of newly born small planets around other stars, yielding a better understanding of how planets evolve early in their lives. The atmosphere of our Earth is its most distinguishing feature. Key outcomes of this project include unveiling the mechanisms that drive the erosion of early planetary atmospheres, leading to a better understanding of the processes that sculpt all planets, including those in our own Solar System. The project leverages Australian and international expertise across exoplanetary, stellar, and Solar System astrophysics, with key outcomes in developing techniques for Australian utilisation of world-class multi-wavelength space facilities. Read moreRead less
Plasmonic nanoparticle catalysis for nitrogen-based synthesis. Light can generate an optical force to capture small objects. This requires intense light – a laser, which limits optical trapping in catalysis applications. This project aims to apply plasmonic nanoparticles with normal-intensity light to take advantage of plasmonic-generated optical forces for catalytic chemical synthesis. The optical trapping/releasing of small molecules is highly selective and responsive to molecule structure and ....Plasmonic nanoparticle catalysis for nitrogen-based synthesis. Light can generate an optical force to capture small objects. This requires intense light – a laser, which limits optical trapping in catalysis applications. This project aims to apply plasmonic nanoparticles with normal-intensity light to take advantage of plasmonic-generated optical forces for catalytic chemical synthesis. The optical trapping/releasing of small molecules is highly selective and responsive to molecule structure and so presents a great opportunity to radically alter chemical synthesis pathways, which will be illustrated with reactions on liquid-solid and gas-solid interfaces. This highly innovative strategy will be used to discover new nitrogen-based syntheses which are both fundamentally and industrially important.Read moreRead less
Bulk nanobubbles: from fundamentals to biomedical applications. This project aims to extend optical and acoustic tools to detect bulk nanobubbles, control their size-distributions, and understand how they interact with biomolecules. Liquids containing nanobubbles have numerous applications particularly in biomedicine. Using interdisciplinary approaches, this project expects to gain convincing evidence of the existence of bulk nanobubbles. This is expected to advance existing fundamental knowle ....Bulk nanobubbles: from fundamentals to biomedical applications. This project aims to extend optical and acoustic tools to detect bulk nanobubbles, control their size-distributions, and understand how they interact with biomolecules. Liquids containing nanobubbles have numerous applications particularly in biomedicine. Using interdisciplinary approaches, this project expects to gain convincing evidence of the existence of bulk nanobubbles. This is expected to advance existing fundamental knowledge at the forefront of soft matter research, and give Australia a decisive technological head start in a competitive and lucrative industry through patentable technology.Read moreRead less
Electronic-vibrational spectroscopy: A new probe for structure and function. This project aims to solve a major challenge in ultrafast spectroscopy: to identify and quantify competing reaction pathways in complex photochemical systems. Ultrafast Spectroscopy provides information on excited-state processes of photochemical reactions, however, unravelling heterogeneous systems with competing parallel processes remains difficult. Multidimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy, sensitive to el ....Electronic-vibrational spectroscopy: A new probe for structure and function. This project aims to solve a major challenge in ultrafast spectroscopy: to identify and quantify competing reaction pathways in complex photochemical systems. Ultrafast Spectroscopy provides information on excited-state processes of photochemical reactions, however, unravelling heterogeneous systems with competing parallel processes remains difficult. Multidimensional electronic-vibrational spectroscopy, sensitive to electronic dynamics and molecular structure, is expected to overcome this barrier. This new level of detail will profoundly enhance our understanding of energy and chemical conversion in complex systems and will reveal design targets for optimising next-generation light-energy harvesting, conducting, and emitting materials.Read moreRead less
Beyond appearance: revealing the physics of galaxy transformation. This project aims to reveal the physical origin of the large variety of galaxies in the universe by utilising multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies combined with advanced data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical simulations. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of astrophysics by providing a physically-motivated foundation to the subjective and qualitative taxonomic scheme generally used ....Beyond appearance: revealing the physics of galaxy transformation. This project aims to reveal the physical origin of the large variety of galaxies in the universe by utilising multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies combined with advanced data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical simulations. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of astrophysics by providing a physically-motivated foundation to the subjective and qualitative taxonomic scheme generally used to understand how galaxies, and ultimately stars and planets, formed and evolve. Read moreRead less
Growing galaxies: a consistent view of star formation across cosmic time. The project aims to contribute to the answer to a fundamental question: how galaxies, including our own, evolved over the Universe's history. The project plans to develop sophisticated spectral models and use them to extract crucial information on star formation, stellar populations, interstellar gas and dust properties from modern galaxy surveys at different cosmic epochs using a consistent framework. These imaging and sp ....Growing galaxies: a consistent view of star formation across cosmic time. The project aims to contribute to the answer to a fundamental question: how galaxies, including our own, evolved over the Universe's history. The project plans to develop sophisticated spectral models and use them to extract crucial information on star formation, stellar populations, interstellar gas and dust properties from modern galaxy surveys at different cosmic epochs using a consistent framework. These imaging and spectroscopic surveys would be complemented with measurements of the total gas reservoir of galaxies, obtaining a full census of the baryons in galaxies. Together, these may deliver significant insights into how the growth of galaxies, driven by the fuelling, efficiency and outputs of star formation, depends on galaxy properties in the local and distant Universe.Read moreRead less
Cosmic origins: How do galaxies build chemical complexity over cosmic time? This project aims to answer questions of how the chemical complexity required to form stars, planets and life arose through cosmic history. Galaxies are the chemical factories of the Universe. Over the life of the cosmos, they have built reservoirs of the elements required to make stars and planets. Yet we have no complete theory of how this process unfolds or how different galaxy types form. By using advanced instrument ....Cosmic origins: How do galaxies build chemical complexity over cosmic time? This project aims to answer questions of how the chemical complexity required to form stars, planets and life arose through cosmic history. Galaxies are the chemical factories of the Universe. Over the life of the cosmos, they have built reservoirs of the elements required to make stars and planets. Yet we have no complete theory of how this process unfolds or how different galaxy types form. By using advanced instrumentation and developing innovative computational techniques, this project aims to use the motions and chemistry of stars to map the history of galaxies in a new way. This would establish where and when stars formed in different galaxies, revealing the importance of black holes, dark matter, galaxy collisions and local environment in the build-up of chemical complexity in our Universe.Read moreRead less
Look closer: transforming the view of clumpy, turbulent galaxies. This project aims to make transformative measurements of gas mass, star formation and stellar mass of turbulent disk galaxies all at 100 parsec resolution. Roughly 80 percent of stars form in turbulent, clumpy disk galaxies. There is however almost no information about the star formation in these systems. The small amount of data that does exist suggests that the main mode of star formation in the Universe is different than in loc ....Look closer: transforming the view of clumpy, turbulent galaxies. This project aims to make transformative measurements of gas mass, star formation and stellar mass of turbulent disk galaxies all at 100 parsec resolution. Roughly 80 percent of stars form in turbulent, clumpy disk galaxies. There is however almost no information about the star formation in these systems. The small amount of data that does exist suggests that the main mode of star formation in the Universe is different than in local spiral galaxies. In turbulent disks, star formation takes place in dense clumps. Using new data from the new ALMA telescope an expected outcome of this project is a systematic study of gas and star formation in clumpy, turbulent disks. The project will also use Keck and HST data to measure the stellar mass of clumps.Read moreRead less
Hot Fuzz: The evolution of satellite galaxies via mergers and stripping. In this project I will be uncovering the fate of satellite galaxies over cosmic time - a major question in astronomy. I will determine whether their mass is lost to direct mergers, or if their stellar material is spread about the dark matter halo they reside in. To tackle this project we will be using two main threads: observing how the occupation of satellite galaxies evolves over time by using data from two major Australi ....Hot Fuzz: The evolution of satellite galaxies via mergers and stripping. In this project I will be uncovering the fate of satellite galaxies over cosmic time - a major question in astronomy. I will determine whether their mass is lost to direct mergers, or if their stellar material is spread about the dark matter halo they reside in. To tackle this project we will be using two main threads: observing how the occupation of satellite galaxies evolves over time by using data from two major Australian 3D galaxy surveys, and using analysis from the largest ever Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archival project to directly detect the faint fuzz of stellar material in these halos. Both these threads involve advanced computation, and will train the next generation of researchers in skills applicable in many domains.Read moreRead less