Members Night at the Observatory – Talk and Viewing

One of the biggest mysteries of the universe is that its expansion appears to be accelerating. Our current cosmological model explains this by having 70% of the universe being made up of dark energy. But the nature of this dark energy is still largely mysterious itself, so the expansion history of the universe and theory of gravity on large scales is still an active area of research. In my PhD thesis I have been investigating how we can statistically distinguish between different models of gravity by measuring the distribution of galaxy positions and velocities found across the cosmos.

I’ve been a student at Swinburne University where I’ve completed my bachelor’s degree and very recently my astrophysics PhD in the field of cosmology. After my bachelors’ first year astronomy course, they sent us on a trip to Mount Burnett Observatory to show us telescopes weren’t only theoretical. I shortly joined thereafter and have since been an outreach volunteer and presenter at MBO. I thoroughly enjoy bringing what I’ve had fun learning at university to the broader public and astronomy enthusiasts.