SCIENCE AT THE SHINE DOME canberra 6 - 8 may 2009

New Fellows Seminar

Thursday, 7 May 2009

Professor Warrick Couch FAA
ARC Professorial Fellow, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne

Warrick Couch did his undergraduate studies at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, graduating with BScHons (1st Class) and MSc degrees in physics. In 1977 he was awarded a British Commonwealth Scholarship to do his PhD in astrophysics at the Australian National University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Durham University (UK) from 1982 to 1985, and then returned to Australia to take up a National Research Fellowship at the Anglo-Australian Observatory. In 1989 he was appointed to a lectureship in the School of Physics at the University of NSW. During his seventeen years at UNSW, he rose to the rank of professor, was head of school, and also held the positions of Australian Gemini and ELT Project scientist. He is currently the president of the Astronomical Society of Australia and chair of the Anglo-Australian Telescope board.

‘Nature versus nurture’ on a cosmic scale

The issue of ‘nature versus nurture’ has been as hotly debated in astronomy as in the life sciences. In an astronomical context, what is at issue is the extent to which galaxy properties are determined by the initial conditions that prevailed at the time of their formation, as opposed to environmental influences that act throughout the course of their lifetime. My research has involved getting to the very heart of this issue by studying the evolution of galaxies in the most extreme environments: in the centres of rich galaxy clusters. These habitats represent the ultimate in high-density living for galaxies, not just in terms of how close and how many neighbours they live next to, but also in the high thousands of kilometres per second speeds they pass each other, and the diffuse million-degree gas they are bathed in. As such, rich clusters are ideal laboratories for studying the effects of environment on galaxy evolution over cosmic time. Warrick’s talk will outline the contributions his research has made towards advancing our understanding of how big a role the environment has played in determining the morphology and star formation history of galaxies. He will also briefly touch on the current and future focus of my research: the extent to which the dynamical growth of clusters through mergers impacts galaxy evolution.