| Bib ID |
3583576 |
| Format |
Audio, Online - Google Books |
| Author |
Colless, Matthew
|
| Access Conditions |
Written permission is required for research use, personal copies and public use for 10 years from the date of the interview. |
| Description |
2005.
3 digital audio tapes (ca. 195 min.)
|
| Series |
Australian astronomers oral history project
|
| Summary |
Matthew Colless, born 1960 in Grafton, talks about his family background and childhood; his education and undergraduate days at Sydney University; Dick Hunstead; Hanbury Brown; Bernie Mills; his postgraduate years at Cambridge University; Martin Rees; Donald Lynden-Bell; Richard Ellis; his interest in cosmology and large scale structure; Paul Hewitt; his early work on multi-object spectroscopy; his working life and postdoctoral years at Durham University in the UK and Kitt Peak National Observatory in the US; the influences on his development as an astronomer; his Junior Research Fellowship at Cambridge University; coming back to Australia as Research Fellow at ANU Mount Stromlo Observatory; forming a team to do the 2dF survey; wide field spectroscopy and the importance of remaining competitive.
Colless discusses research at Mount Stromlo Observatory; his appointment as Director of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) and his motivation for taking up the job; his vision for AAO; wide-field spectrograph; extra-solar planets; the achievements of the AAO; observational cosmology; the use of multi-object spectrograph to map out galaxy distribution; Low Dispersion Survey Spectrograph (LDSS); Coma cluster; galaxy formation; the autofib redshift survey, 2dF survey and the 6dF spectrograph; his research strategies; his postgraduate students; his role in astronomical societies; his views on Australian astronomy; conditions for research in Australia, Europe and the US; elite astronomers; the Extremely Large Telescope and how Australia can participate in the project; the Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope, mentioned in the US Decadal Plan; his Australian Science Laureate Award; his family; his major achievement in life to date.
|
| Biography/History |
Professor Matthew Colless is the Director of the Anglo-Australian Observatory and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. He has followed a distinguished career in astronomy and astrophysics and has 13 papers in the top 100 most-cited papers from their year of publication. One of 33 Australian Science Citation Laureates, with 7 high-impact papers in the period 1981-1998. Awarded the 1994 Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal by the Astronomical Society of India for exceptional scientific contributions in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. |
| Notes |
Recorded on October 21, 2005 at Epping, N.S.W.
Digital master; National Library of Australia, Oral History collection;
|
| Index/Finding Aid Note |
Timed summary (4 p.) and Corrected transcript (typescript, 64 leaves) |
| Subjects |
Colless, Matthew. - Interviews. | Anglo-Australian Observatory. | Astronomers - Australia - Interviews. | Astrophysicists - Australia - Interviews | Astronomy - Research - Australia.
|
| Occupation |
Astronomers. | Astrophysicists. |
| Other Authors |
Bhathal, R. S
|