Graduate Program

GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS

The following students submitted their theses during 1997:

Brett Wells: "The Far Infrared to Radio Continuum Correlation for Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies"

Claudia McCain: "Morphology and Kinematics of Interacting Galaxies: The Spheroidal + Irregular Pairs"

Ben Stappers: "Observations of Eclipsing and Binary Pulsars"

Drs Anton Koekemoer, Kim Sebo, Steven Tingay, and Brett Wells graduated on 26 September 1997. Dr Claudia McCain was admitted to the degree on 20 October 1997, and will graduate at a future ceremony.

The program welcomed Michelle Buxton, Tavis Hamer, Stefan Keller, Ian Price (Duffield Scholar), and Mary Putman as commencing students during the year.

There are currently 16 students on course in the Program, while four are on extensions of time to submit their theses (three for PhD and one for MSc). One student withdrew from the PhD program.

The Observatories were disappointed at the small number of applicants for scholarships expected to enter the Program in 1998, especially from Australian students. The competition to attract good students is becoming quite intense.

Peter McGregor offered a series of lectures on Astronomical Techniques, specifically for the graduate students; Alex Rodgers and Matthew Colless also participated in this series; a full set of lecture notes has been deposited in the MSO Library. Walter Stibbs also offered a series of lectures on the treatment of observational data.

The Board of Studies has given some attention to the interface between lecture offerings in the Graduate Program and in the various undergraduate courses, and has specified a core curriculum of four lecture series that all graduate students will be required to attend from 1998 onwards, unless they have taken equivalent courses as part of their undergraduate education.

Summer Research Scholarship Program

The Summer Research Scholarship Program continued during the 1996-97 long vacation, convened by Gary Da Costa. Eight undergraduate students from Australian and New Zealand universities participated, though one scholar had to withdraw from the program early for family reasons. The remaining scholars spent about eight weeks working on a project with an MSSSO staff supervisor. A tour of major observatory sites in NSW also formed part of the Program as did a series of lectures on the theme 'Activity in Galaxies'.

MSSSO Annual Report 1997

The 1997-98 Summer Research Scholarship Program was again convened by Gary Da Costa; assisted by Charlene Heisler. Seven scholars were accepted, all from Australian universities (Figure 15).

Fig. 15: Neil Crighton, UNSW; Emma Woolaston, ANU; Paul Price, U.Qld; David Yong, Monash; Michael Murphy, UNSW; Kathryn Deeley, U.Tas; and Jill Rathborne, UNSW.

Monash Collaboration

A party of about 30 students from the Department of Mathematics at Monash University, led by Dr John Lattanzio, visited Mount Stromlo on 8 - 11 May and on 25 - 28 September, as part of the ongoing educational collaboration between the two institutions. During their stay the students received lectures from Gary Da Costa (coordinator of the visits), Tim Axelrod, Charlene Heisler and Brian Schmidt. Both visits were favoured with reasonable weather and the 74-inch observing and consequent data reduction tasks were carried out under the supervision of Gary Da Costa and Brian Schmidt. The May visit concentrated on CCD imaging using the interim version of the Monash camera, while during the September visit spectroscopic observations were made with the cassegrain spectrograph and CCD detector. The visits were considered by the students as very successful and will be repeated next year.

Graduate Program

Harley Wood School of Astronomy and the ASA Annual Scientific Meetings

These were held at the Jenolan Caves and the University of NSW in early July. There was an excellent attendance by students of the Graduate Program.

July Brief Visit

Following a successful start to this program last year, a July Brief Visit was held again on 15-16 July 1997. Seven senior undergraduate students attended - from Macquarie, Curtin, Tasmania, QUT, Queensland, and the ANU. Most were in the middle of their honours year, but two were in their pre-honours year. There is a good chance one of these will apply to enter the ANU's Honours Program in Astronomy and Astrophysics next year. The Visit program included a tour of MSO and about ten lectures on various research topics, as well as an introduction to the Graduate Program. A night visit was clouded out.

Graduate School Grant

During the year the Graduate School invited bids for promotion/recruitment grants from a special Strategic Initiatives fund. This Program was successful in obtaining a grant of $1000, which was directed towards the cost of the July Brief Visit. This money was in addition to the regular annual grant (usually $4500) received from the Graduate School.

1997 Board of Studies

The 1997 membership of the Board of Studies is shown in Chapter 11 of this report. The Board met formally on one occasion during the year, on 10 October. Business was transacted by e-mail at other times. The Program Annual Meeting was held on 15 December. Elections to the Board of Studies take place at the Annual Meeting.