Ray Norris's outreach page
1. Short Biography
2. Long Boring Biography
3. Current talks for Astronomical Societies etc:
A) WTF? Planning for unexpected discoveries with EMU
Australia is building a new $165m telescope in Western Australia, called the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP). Two key science projects are driving the design of ASKAP, one of which is the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU), led by Norris, which is set to discover 70 million radio sources, compared to the 2.5 million discovered in the entire history of radio astronomy. Even more importantly, history shows that such large projects tend to make unexpected discoveries (e.g. pulsars, quasars, dark energy) that we cannot easily plan for. But since these are probably going to be the most important discoveries made with ASKAP, we have to be ready to make them, and have created a project called WTF with the goal of identifying the unexpected.
B) The Astronomy and Navigation of Australia's Aboriginal people
Aboriginal people in Australia have a rich astronomical tradition such as the "Emu in the Sky" constellation of dark clouds, and stories about the Sun, Moon, and stars, revealing a depth and complexity of pre-contact Aboriginal cultures which are not widely appreciated by outsiders. Not only did they know the sky intimately, but they were familiar with planetary motions, tides, and eclipses. Their songs and stories show that Aboriginal Australians sought to understand their Universe in a similar way to modern science. They used this knowledge of the sky to construct calendars, songlines, and other navigational tools, enabling them to navigate across the country, trading artefacts and sacred stories
C. Abstracts of other Public Talks that I currently give
4. Recent podcasts, radio/TV programmes, etc.
- Jodcast: Evolutionary Map of the Universe (2016)
- Lecture at the National Library of Australia on "Aboriginal Navigation" (2015)
- ABC Radio National: Future Tense: The Golden Age of Astronomy (Feb 2013)
- CAASTRO Partner Profile & the Golden Age of Astronomy (Jan 2013)
- CAASTRO Aboriginal Astronomy (Jan 2013)
- ABC Bush Telegraph (Feb 2012)
- ABC OckhamsÕ Razor (Jan 2010)
- ABC Messagestick (TV): Before Galileo (1 Nov 2009)
- ABC Artworks (radio): The First Astronomers (20 Sept 2009)
- ABC Catalyst: Black Holes
- ABC Catalyst: The Square Kilometre Array
- YouTube video of Ray Norris & Bill Harney in the First Astronomers in Darwin
5. Photos for outreach purposes (click on link for larger version)
All pictures on this page are released into the public domain and may be used for any legitimate purpose without the need to request permission.
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Ray Norris at Geraldton Big Sky writers festival, 2009. Photo courtesy of Priscilla Clayton. |
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Ray Norris with Wardaman elder Bill Yidumduma Harney at the "First Astronomers", Darwin Festival & Science Week, August 2009. Photo courtesy of Bec Allen. High-res version (1MB) |
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Ray Norris at the "First Astronomers", Darwin Festival & Science Week, August 2009. Photo courtesy of Bec Allen. |
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Ray Norris at the Darwin Festival & Science Week, August 2009. Photo courtesy of Bec Allen. |
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Ray Norris in front of an image of the galaxy NGC3256 on which he worked with Jayanne English |
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Ray Norris giving a talk on Aboriginal Astronomy at Nhulunbuy, 2008. Photo courtesy of Ian MacLean. |
6. Other Stuff
Last updated: 8 October 2009
Ray Norris (ray.norris (at) csiro.au)