PROGRAM

View Program Timetable

Keynote Speakers

Professor David Malin

Professor Fred Watson

Professor John Storey

Invited Speakers

Professor Matthew Bailes
Swinburne University

Mr Rob Landis
NASA

Mr Jonathon Nally
Australia Sky & Telescope

Social Program

CONFERENCE WELCOME RECEPTION
Date: Sunday, 23 July 2006
Time: 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: Carlton Crest Hotel
Dress Code: Smart Business

An invitation is extended to all delegates to attend the Welcome Reception. This informal function will be great opportunity to network with old friends and new acquaintances. The evening includes light refreshments.

NIGHT SKY TOUR
Date: Monday, 24 July 2006
Time: 17:30 – 22:00
Venue: Leon Mow Dark Sky Site, Heathcote
Dress Code: Very Warm Clothes

The Leon Mow Dark Sky Site is owned by the Astronomical Society of Victoria (ASV), Melbourne’s largest amateur astronomy group. The site is located 1.5 hours north of Melbourne near the central Victorian town of Heathcote. Members of the ASV will provide their telescopes and astronomical expertise to showcase the rich Southern sky. A traditional Aussie BBQ and return transportation are included in the tour.

Note: In the event that poor weather conditions force the cancellation of this event a Planetarium Movie Night at the Melbourne Planetarium will be run as an alternative.

VENDOR SESSIONS
Date: Tuesday, 25 and Wednesday, 26 July 2006
Time: 14:30 - 23:30
Venue: Melbourne Planetarium

For the first time at IPS 2006 we will be offering an all-day Planetarium Showcase that will run in parallel with paper sessions at the main conference venue at the Carlton Crest Hotel. A series of 30-minute sessions will be made available to screen the latest planetarium show productions. Delegates will need to register their attendance for each 30-minute session on-site during the Conference Registration. Buses will be available to shuttle delegates between the Carlton Crest Hotel and Melbourne Planetarium throughout the day.

Professor David Malin

Professor David Malin joined the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) in 1975 and astronomy has never been the same. With a background in chemistry and interests in scientific photography, David took on the role of the AAO's photographic scientist-astronomer and developed photographic techniques that have allowed the Universe to be seen in unprecedented clarity and beautiful colour. While David's work has produced important astronomical discoveries these go hand-in-hand with the contribution he has made to public astronomy. David's images were the first to unveil the richness of the Universe and his photographs are admired world-wide.

David has now retired from the AAO and has established his own business David Malin Images (DMI). He is also Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), specifically the Faculty of Applied Science. David has published over 120 scientific papers and his name is associated with "Malinization", a process for revealing very faint features in photographic images. This process was used to discover two new types of galaxies: Malin-Carter shell galaxies that have low contrast, arc-like structures associated with otherwise normal galaxies and Malin-1: an extremely faint and uniquely massive proto-galaxy.

David continues to be a much sought after international speaker and has published numerous books and popular articles on astronomy and photography. His images have been widely published on the covers of hundreds of books and magazines, including LIFE and National Geographic and as a series of Australian postage stamps. They have also appeared in international solo art exhibitions in Australia, Britain, China, France, Italy, India and the USA. David's life and work is honoured in an award winning DVD titled "The Man who Colours Stars".

Professor Fred Watson

Professor Fred Watson is Astronomer-in-Charge of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) at Siding Spring in central New South Wales. Working with a team of astronomy and IT specialists, Fred helps to maintain the scientific productivity of the AAO's two telescopes - the 3.9-meter Anglo-Australian Telescope (Australia's largest optical telescope) and its wide-field companion, the 1.2-meter UK Schmidt Telescope - ensuring that they remain centres of excellence in astronomy.

Fred's astronomical work centres around large-scale star and galaxy surveys, and the development of novel instrumentation to carry them out. He helped to pioneer the use of fibre optics in astronomy and was responsible for an instrument called FLAIR on the UK Schmidt Telescope, ancestor of the present 6dF system. He is an honorary Professor of Astronomy at the University of Southern Queensland and an adjunct Professor in the School of Physical and Chemical Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology.

Fred is also a passionate astronomy communicator and is much in demand among science educators. He has been a guest speaker at venues ranging from Parliament House to Science in the Pub and also has regular slots on ABC Radio and makes occasional television appearances. In July 2003, Fred was awarded the David Allen Prize of the Astronomical Society of Australia in recognition of his contribution to public awareness in astronomy. His latest book, Stargazer - the Life and Times of the Telescope, is a lively account of the telescope and the extraordinary people who created it. Fred is a person of many talents and he wrote the text for Star Chant, the choral fourth symphony of Australian composer Ross Edwards. This multi-media work also uses astronomical images by Professor David Malin.

Professor John Storey

John Storey is a Professor of Physics in the Department of Astrophysics and Optics at the University of New South Wales. He received his PhD in 1976 from Monash University, Melbourne and from 1976 until 1981 he was a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley. His main interests there were in far-infrared astronomy, using NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory (a C-141 Starlifter transport jet fitted with a 90cm telescope) to explore this largely uncharted region of the spectrum. In 1981 he returned to Australia to take up a research position at the Anglo-Australian Observatory. He has been at the University of New South Wales since 1982, and served for a total of ten years as Head of the School of Physics, stepping down at the end of 2004.

John's astronomical interests include star formation, planetary nebulae and active galactic nuclei, and in particular the development of innovative instrumentation to facilitate studies of these regions. He specialises in infrared and millimetre astronomy and his observing site is the best on Earth - the high Antarctic plateau. John is a member of the Antarctic Science Advisory Committee, he chairs the Antarctic Astronomy and Astrophysics Expert Group of SCAR and in 1999 was awarded the Antarctic Service Medal by the US Congress.

John is a distinguished astronomy researcher and in 1987 he was awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science. This medal is awarded annually for excellence in experimental physics. In 1989, he won an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship and has since spent a total of 18 months working at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics near Munich. Other awards and distinguished lectures include a Certificate of Recognition (NASA, 1982), the Bok Lecture (1992), the Pawsey Lecture (Australian Institute of Physics, 1997) the Ellery Lecture (Astronomical Society of Australia, 1999) and the Staff Development Award (University of NSW, 2002).