Radio Astronomy in Australia – arrays, asteroids and (no) aliens

In this talk I will start with a whirlwind tour of Australia radio-telescopes, from the iconic Parkes radio telescope, "Murriyang", to the SKA currently being built in Western Australia.
Examples of the research doing with these facilities will be given, with a focus on radar observations of near Earth asteroids, and some of the history of Searches for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence in Australia

Dr Phil Edwards

Dr Edwards is the senior research scientist, Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO Space and Astronomy, based at CSIRO's Marsfield site in Sydney.

Dr Edwards has a PhD in physics from University of Adelaide, 1988. He has worked at Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for 12 years, from 1994 to 2006.

Dr Edwards is the chair, Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and chair, Australian SKA Science Advisory Committee of ASCC.

He was co-chair of the RadioAstron International Science Council from 2014 to 2019, and has co-authored over 230 scientific papers.