Science at the Shine Dome 2010

New Fellows Seminar

Wednesday 5 May

Professor Elaine Sadler FAA
School of Physics, University of Sydney

Elaine Sadler completed an undergraduate physics degree at the University of Queensland, followed by a PhD in astronomy from the Australian National University. One of her main research interests is galaxy evolution, using large observational data sets to study how galaxies form and change on timescales of billions of years. She held postdoctoral fellowships at the European Southern Observatory in Germany and Kitt Peak National Observatory in the United States before returning to Australia in 1988 to take up a research position at the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

Elaine is currently an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. She is also president of Division VIII (galaxies and the universe) of the International Astronomical Union, and chair of the National Committee for Astronomy.

Black holes and galaxy evolution

At the centre of every large galaxy is a massive black hole. Enormous amounts of energy can be released when this black hole swallows infalling material, and radio telescopes provide a powerful tool for identifying and studying black holes in the distant universe. I will describe some of the intriguing links between the very small-scale properties of the central black hole and the large-scale properties of the surrounding galaxy, and discuss how black holes can profoundly affect the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time.