| ASM Home | Program | Registration | Abstracts | Posters | Public Talk | Social Events | Venues | Accommodation | Transport | Contact Us | HWWS Home |
 
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC. |
Annual Scientific Meeting 6-10 July 2008 |
ASM 2008 Harley Wood Public Lecture
Date: Monday, July 7th 2008
The Harley Wood Lecture is an annual astronomy talk open to the public, held during the ASA meeting. The 2008 lecture will be given by:
John M. Dickey
Professor of Physics
University of Tasmania
What can VLBI do for you? Radio Astronomy in the Public Interest
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI for short) is an observing technique that ties together the continents of the earth; since the 1960s it has inspired international collaborations and driven technological advances in a variety of industries from high speed data recording to ultra-precise timekeeping. In the Northern Hemisphere many nations have established dedicated VLBI facilities such as the US Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and the European VLBI Network (EVN). In the Southern Hemisphere, the only VLBI facility is the Australian Long Baseline Array (LBA), an informal team consisting of people and telescopes that join together several times a year to perform observations as requested by astronomers from around the world. All Australians can be proud of these people and their accomplishments over several decades. Now, the VLBI technique is being used for a new purpose: to establish a very precise geodetic reference grid for use in science, industry, agriculture, and navigation. Combining the most advanced tools of surveying, geophysics, and radio astronomy, the new AuScope geospatial infrastructure will provide a foundation for spatial positioning systems that will have much better precision than even the finest GPS receivers of today. Future applications of this capability could save lives on the highways, predict earthquakes, and monitor the rise in sea-levels. The story behind this project, and the science that drives it, is the topic of the 2008 Harley Wood Lecture.
Speaker Biography
John M. Dickey is Professor of Physics at the University of Tasmania. Before coming to UTas in 2004 he was Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Minnesota (1982-2004), Associate Astronomer at the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory (1979-82), Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts (1977-79), and a predoctoral research fellow at the Arecibo Observatory (1974-76). He has a BS in Physics from Stanford University (1972) and an MS (1974) and PhD (1977) in Astrophysics from Cornell University. He has been awarded a National Merit Scholarship, an NSF Graduate Fellowship, a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, a Bush Foundation Fellowship, a Netherlands Astronomical Fellowship, and sabbatical fellowships from the Universities of Leiden and Bonn, the Observatory of Paris and the CSIRO. He has served on science advisory committees for NASA, the National Science Foundation (chair), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (chair), the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (chair), the Australia Telescope National Facility (chair), the Australian Antarctic Division, and the International Square Kilometer Array Consortium. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union, the American Astronomical Society, the Australian Institute of Physics and the Astronomical Society of Australia.
Date and Venue
Monday, 7 July 2008
7:30-9:00PM (duration to be confirmed)
Woolnough Lecture Theatre
University of Western Australia
An annotated campus map is available.
The Woolnough Lecture Theatre is at map grid location H8. It has a capacity of 186 people, and is equipped with a computer-controlled LCD projector, as well as whiteboards, overhead projector, and 35 mm slide facilities.
Directions: arriving at the main north entrance to UWA at 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, proceed south past the Visitors Information Centre on the right, and then Winthrop Hall (and the Clock Tower) on the left. Continue south until you find the School of Geology building on the right - the Woolnough LT is inside the first door you encounter.
For further information (and additions or corrections), contact: Andre Fletcher (abf@cyllene.uwa.edu.au)