Physics and Sustainable Development, Wattle Sustainability Fellowships, Student Space Challenge Programme

Einstein A Go-Go

Dr Shane and Scarlett speak with six guests in this bumper physics show!

This week's guests are:

1) Dr Sara Webb, from Swinburne University. To prepare for the future of Astronomy, Dr. Sara Webb works with optical telescope data and machine learning to explore explosions in the universe and how astronomers find them. Sara focused on studying small, yet mighty, red dwarf stars and their flares. When a star flares, energy and matter are spewed out into the surrounding solar system, and Sara has worked to build up a large and unique population of these stars that flare in very short periods of time. In her broader research into investigating the use of AI in team situations, Sara is currently working on studying how astronomers work in their various cognitive states.

Aside from her academic research, Sara also coordinates and co-leads Swinburne’s unique student space challenge programs, sending student led experiments to the International Space Station. This Australian wide program gives students insight into a space science career. Next week, this challenge will run with 70 amazing high school students learning about space/astronomy on campus. They all get to leave with an experiment kit with real space samples been to the ISS and back.

2) Four Fellows of the Wattle Sustainability Fellowship at the University of Melbourne:

Alyssa Seckinger-Crow

Ellen Martin

Anke Oatley

Rita Adjei

3) Dr Suzie Sheehy from the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Univeristy of Melbourne. Suzie is an Associate Professor and is the Baker/ANSTO Fellow in Medical Accelerator Physics. Suzie will be talking about the upcoming July lectures in physics – the most notable science communication event at University of Melbourne that has been running for over 50 years.