Monday, 30 June 2008

About 200 scientists with stars in their eyes will convene at The University of Western Australia from 6-10 July for the annual scientific meeting of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

They will hear about the University's development of optical frequency comb devices which allow the accurate measurement of colour and which may result in discovering more new planets outside the solar system, according to one of the conference organisers, Professor Lister Staveley-Smith.

UWA and Curtin University of Technology have joined forces to establish a $2.3 million Radio Astronomy Science and Engineering Centre of Excellence.  Other partners include Edith Cowan University, CSIRO, the Perth iVEC supercomputing facility and other Australian and overseas institutes, some represented by the delegates.

UWA and Curtin are also partners in a larger $20 million International Radio Astronomy Research Centre, announced by the Premier in February this year.

The conference will also hear about UWA's leading research and development in gravitational wave astronomy.

Professor Staveley-Smith, who is a Premier's Fellow in Radio Astronomy, said radio and gravitational wave astronomers were engaged in a race to directly detect the first gravity waves, opening up an entirely new class of astronomy and likely to lead to ground-breaking discoveries.

Media are welcome at the conference, which opens at 9am on Monday, July 7, in the Tattersall Lecture Theatre north of the Molecular and Chemical Sciences Building near Hackett entry 2.

For further information about the conference, visit: https://www.asa2008.conf.uwa.edu.au/

Media references

Professor Lister Staveley-Smith (+61 8)  6488 4550  /  (+61 4) 25 212 592
Janine MacDonald (UWA Public Affairs)  (+61 8)  6488 5563  /  (+61 4) 32 637 716

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