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Event details
Complex science, clear impact. Celebrate National Science Week with some of Curtin University’s brightest minds as they lift the lid on their scientific breakthroughs.
From quantum physics to astronomy, they’ll take us behind the scenes of their research and show us how big questions become real-world applications.
Join our special line-up of speakers including:
- Superstars of STEM Dr Adelle Goodwin and Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker
- 2022 Premier Science Award Hall of Fame Inductee Professor Igor Bray
- Director of Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre Associate Professor Nick Timms.
If you can’t make it in person, you can join us online. Please note a link to stream the event will be sent to you via email closer to the date.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Date
Wednesday 13 August 2025
Time
5.00pm – 5.30pm: Registration, light refreshments and activation booths
5.30pm – 7.00pm: Formal proceedings
7.00pm – 7.30pm: Networking, light refreshments and activation booths
Location
Building 500
The Hub and Exhibition Space
Curtin University
–
Or online
Presenters & Panellists
Dr Adelle Goodwin
Dr Adelle Goodwin is an astrophysicist at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Curtin University and a Forrest Research Foundation Fellow.
Adelle is a Science and Technology Superstar of STEM (2023-2024), International Visitors Leadership Program Alumni, and was awarded the Astronomical Society of Australia’s Charlene Heisler Prize in 2021 for her PhD thesis. Adelle is passionate about working towards improving the culture of astronomy for minority groups, to provide an inclusive, collaborative, and exciting research environment tackling the most pressing unknowns about black holes and making space accessible to all.
Adelle holds a PhD in Astrophysics from Monash University, and a Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) from Monash University.
Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker
Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker leads the “Our Galaxy” Research Group at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.
She primarily works with the SKA precursors, especially the Murchison Widefield Array, and has led several large sky surveys which have advanced the astrophysics of radio galaxies, supernova remnants, and galaxy clusters. Her team have discovered a new type of repeating radio source, the “long-period radio transients”, and her work is opening up new windows in time-domain astronomy.
She has championed the cause of women in STEM, improved workplace facilities for women, tackled policy changes to improve equity, and contributed to multiple peer mentoring groups.
Professor Igor Bray
Professor Igor Bray is Head of Curtin University’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, world leader in atomic collision theory, and a passionate advocate for science and science education. His clear way of expressing his views, even about very specialised and complex topics, has enabled him to engage the broader community in important discussions about the role of science and science education in Australia’s future.
Professor Bray has had continuous Australian Research Council (ARC) funding since 1992, including five Fellowships, was the Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Antimatter-Matter Studies (2007-2014).
In 2017, Professor Bray was elected to the Australian Academy of Science and was inducted into the Western Australian Hall of Fame in 2022.
Associate Professor Nick Timms
Associate Professor Nick Timms is the Director of the Space Science and Technology Centre.
He is a geoscientist by training and has published extensively on a wide range of topics in Earth and planetary sciences. Nick is equally excited to be out in the field as he is analysing rocks and minerals in the lab. He also teaches structural and field geology at Curtin University.
Nick is fascinated by the extremes, such as ancient impact craters, rocks that deformed deep in the Earth, and decoding geological histories from the microstructure of minerals. His current focus is on lunar and solar system evolution from meteorites and samples returned from the Moon and asteroids by space missions. As a Sample Analysis Team member of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, Nick’s recent research on samples from asteroid Bennu reveals how planetary bodies form, evolve, and sometimes collide catastrophically.
Professor Gretchen Benedix
Professor Gretchen Benedix is the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research at Curtin University. She is a cosmic mineralogist and astro-geologist in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, using the chemistry, mineralogy, spectroscopy, and petrology of meteorites to understand the formation and evolution of asteroids and other planets.
Activation Booths
Matthew Burn
Matthew Burn is a PhD student at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, working with Dr Adelle Goodwin and Dr James Miller-Jones. His work is focused on stars that have been ripped apart by supermassive black holes in phenomena called Tidal Disruption Events. In particular, he looks for and analyses the radio emissions produced by these events, which can last for years and originates from material ejected from the vicinity of the black hole.
Csanad Horvath
Csanad Horvath is a PhD Candidate at Curtin University. He started his PhD at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) in 2024 with Associate Professor Natasha Hurley-Walker and Dr Sam McSweeney. His work focuses on both the discovery and understanding of long period transients (LPTs), which are radio pulses that repeat on the minute-to-hour timescale. Csanad has lived in Hungary, Ireland and Australia, and enjoys fencing.
Dr Sammy McSweeney
Dr Sammy McSweeney is a radio astronomer at Curtin University who previously had a career as a classical pianist. He currently moonlights as the accompanist for the Perth Pride Choir but spends most of his waking hours studying a recently discovered, mysterious class of slowly repeating pulses of radio waves coming from our own Galaxy. In his spare time, Sammy enjoys composing, word puzzles, programming, and occasionally making websites.
Silvia Mantovanini
Silvia Mantovanini is a PhD student at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) node at Curtin University. She moved to Australia to follow her passion of exploring the Universe. Her PhD is focused on hunting for the remnants of exploded massive stars called ‘supernova remnants’ within our own Milky Way Galaxy. So far, she has identified 21 promising candidates but there are many more are out there waiting to be discovered. Using data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), she has created a new image of the Galaxy with better resolution and sensitivity to identify more of these objects.
Access
We are committed to making our events as accessible and inclusive as possible. Refer to our Access and Inclusion Guide for more information.