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Astrophysicist Dr Bi-Qing For has been appointed a John Stocker Postdoctoral Fellow which will allow her to further her research in support of Australia’s bid for the proposed Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project.

Dr For is a research associate with the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

The Federal Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr, announced the scholarship recipients in August, saying he had no doubt they will play an important role in Australian and global science.

Dr For recently received a PhD from the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas. Her postdoctoral research will use the new Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope (ASKAP), currently under construction by CSIRO in WA’s Murchison region, to study the interaction of the Magellanic Clouds (our nearest extragalactic neighbours) with the halo of Earth’s Milky Way galaxy.

This system provides the closest and best laboratory for understanding how galaxy interaction influences the overall evolution of galaxies.

The ASKAP telescope is expected to make fundamental advances because it was designed to be the fastest radio telescope in the world prior to the SKA, which means that it can survey huge areas of sky at high resolution and good sensitivity.

The brightness of many parts of the Magellanic System means that this project can begin by using the six-telescope Boolardy Experimental Test Array (BETA), which will begin to collect data in 2012 and well before the full ASKAP facility is due to be completed.

This project will assist in the science commissioning of ASKAP, which will build Australia’s case for hosting the €1.6 billion ($2.08 billion) Square Kilometre Array.

As part of the research, the project will test the new iVEC high performance computing facilities at Murdoch and UWA to help them prepare to receive data from the final ASKAP facility.

The award is funded through the Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF) which encourages collaborative research that brings together organisations capable of working together to solve national challenges.