Australian astrophysicist
Lisa Jennifer Kewley
FRSN
FAA
(born 1974) is an Australian
Astrophysicist
and current Director of the
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
. Previously, Kewley was Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3-D (ASTRO 3-D) and
ARC Laureate Fellow
at the
Australian National University
College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, where she was also a
Professor
.
[2]
[3]
Specialising in galaxy evolution, she won the
Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy
in 2005 for her studies of oxygen in galaxies, and the
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
in 2008. In 2014 she was elected a
fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
. In 2020 she received the
James Craig Watson Medal
.
[4]
In 2021 she was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences.
[5]
In 2022 she became the first female director of the
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
.
[6]
Life
[
edit
]
Kewley was raised in South Australia. Her parents encouraged engagement with the sciences and she was influenced by a high school physics teacher, and participation at a school stargazing camp, to become interested in astronomy.
[7]
After school, she enrolled in a Bachelor of Science at the
University of Adelaide
, graduating with a BSc (Hons) in astrophysics.
[8]
She then moved to
Canberra
to pursue a doctorate in astrophysics at the
Australian National University
, which was awarded in 2002.
[9]
In 2001, she spent some time in the United States as a visiting scholar at
Johns Hopkins University
.
[7]
During this time she co-authored a paper in
The Astrophysical Journal
, called "Theoretical Modeling of
Starburst Galaxies
",
[10]
which as of 2016 was her most-cited publication.
[11]
After completing her doctorate, Kewley moved to the
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on a CfA fellowship, working on the formation and
evolution of stars
.
[8]
Her mentors there included American astrophysicist
Margaret Geller
.
[7]
Awarded a
Hubble postdoctoral fellowship
in 2004, she then continued her work at the Institute for Astronomy at the
University of Hawai?i
in 2005. Kewley was part of a team that used re-analysis of a
Hubble Space Telescope
image to identify a distant galaxy 9.3 billion light years distant.
[12]
She then worked with the
W. M. Keck Observatory
on
Mauna Kea
, analysing data on the oxygen content of this and other galaxies of different ages, contributing to the understanding of their evolution. For this research, in 2005 she received the
Annie Jump Cannon
Award in Astronomy.
[9]
There was further recognition of her work in 2008, when Kewley won the
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
, awarded by the
American Astronomical Society
.
[13]
The award was for her research "that has shown how the properties of a galaxy depend on how long ago it was formed".
[14]
Her work studied the variation in properties of old and new galaxies, including oxygen richness, star formation rate, and the characteristics of the galaxy's nucleus.
[14]
In 2011, Kewley returned to Australia as a professor for the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the
Australian National University
.
[15]
In 2014, Kewley was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
[16]
She was chosen to deliver the 2018 Harley Wood lecture, an annual event of the Astronomical Society of Australia, on the topic of oxygen and stars.
[17]
She was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society of New South Wales
in 2020.
[18]
Kewley developed the proposal for, and is director of, the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics, based at Mount Stromlo.
[19]
She married her husband Reuben in
Canberra
in 2001, shortly before they moved to Massachusetts.
[7]
They have a son (born 2008) and a daughter (born 2011), both born when she was living and working in Hawai'i.
[7]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"ANU secures three Australian Laureate Fellowships"
.
Australian National University
. 25 June 2015
. Retrieved
21 January
2018
.
- ^
"Professor Lisa Kewley"
.
ANU Researchers
.
Australian National University
. 2014. Archived from
the original
on 7 December 2018
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
"Canberra astronomer becomes first Australian to win major US science award in 133 years"
.
Phys.org
. 22 January 2020
. Retrieved
14 February
2020
.
- ^
James Craig Watson Medal 2020
- ^
Newly Elected members to the National Academy of Sciences, April 2021
- ^
"Lisa Kewley Named Director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian"
. 14 March 2022
. Retrieved
16 August
2022
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"In pursuit of two goals: An award-winning astronomer who needs both career and family"
.
Gender Institute
. Australian National University. 7 November 2012. Archived from
the original
on 28 March 2019
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
a
b
"Lisa Kewley"
. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai?i. 2006. Archived from
the original
on 31 May 2014
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
a
b
"Kewley Wins National Astronomy Award"
.
N? Kilo H?k? (Newsletter of the Institute of Astronomy, University of Hawai?i
(18). 2006.
- ^
Kewley, L. J.; Dopita, M. A.; Sutherland, R. S.; Heisler, C. A.; Trevena, J. (2001). "Theoretical Modeling of Starburst Galaxies".
The Astrophysical Journal
.
556
(1): 121?140.
arXiv
:
astro-ph/0106324
.
Bibcode
:
2001ApJ...556..121K
.
doi
:
10.1086/321545
.
S2CID
8611687
.
- ^
"Lisa Kewley citation indices"
.
Google Scholar
. 2013
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
Ferrara, Michele; Marcel Clemens (2 June 2011).
"Sp1149 and the perfect gravitational lens"
.
Astrofilo
. Astro Publishing
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
"Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy"
.
American Astronomical Society
. 2014. Archived from
the original
on 11 February 2013
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
a
b
"UH Astronomers Win American Astronomical Society Prizes"
. Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai?i. 4 February 2008
. Retrieved
31 May
2014
.
- ^
Bhathal, Ragbir
; Ralph Sutherland;
Harvey Butcher
(2013).
Mt Stromlo Observatory: From Bush Observatory to the Nobel Prize
.
CSIRO Publishing
. p. 260.
ISBN
978-1486300761
.
- ^
"Fellows elected in 2014"
.
Australian Academy of Science
. 2014
. Retrieved
25 May
2014
.
- ^
"Harley Wood Lecture ASA Annual Scientific Meeting 2018"
.
Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
. Archived from
the original
on 13 March 2019
. Retrieved
26 July
2019
.
- ^
"Fellows of the Royal Society of NSW (K)"
.
Royal Society of New South Wales
.
Archived
from the original on 2 April 2021
. Retrieved
1 July
2021
.
- ^
Le Lievre, Kimberley (3 March 2019).
"Meet the women leading Australia's charge in science and space"
.
Sydney Morning Herald
. Retrieved
26 July
2019
.
External links
[
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]