Professor Lisa Kewley
(FL150100113)
Current Organisation
Administering Organisation
Primary research field
Strategic Research Priority area
Australian National University
Australian National University
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astronomy
Lifting productivity and economic growth
Image credit:
Australian National University
Fellowship project summary:
The building blocks of life over 12 billion years
This fellowship project aims to develop new theoretical models and combine them with innovative
observations from new Australian 3D technology to trace how the building blocks of life—carbon, oxygen,
and nitrogen—formed and assembled from the infant universe to the present day. The elements transform
the way new stars are born, the way planets are formed, the way stars explode and die, and the way stars
assemble into new galaxies. The origin of the elements is an outstanding problem which is driving the
establishment of new international telescopes; Australia alone has invested over $480 million in
astronomical infrastructure over the past eight years. This project aims to provide the critical mentoring and
training to the next generation of astronomers required to fully exploit Australia's major investment in
astronomical infrastructure.
About Professor Kewley
Professor Kewley is a Professor and Associate Director at the Research School for Astronomy and
Astrophysics (RSAA) at the Australian National University (ANU) where she specialises in galaxy
evolution.
Professor Kewley completed a Bachelor of Science with a BSc(Hons) in astrophysics at The University of
Adelaide, and was awarded her doctorate in 2002 from the Australian National University. After leaving
Australia in 2001, Professor Kewley was a Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics Fellow and a
NASA Hubble Fellow. She joined the faculty at the University of Hawaii in 2007, where she used the
largest telescopes in the northern hemisphere to probe galaxy formation and evolution in the early universe.
While in the US, Kewley was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon and Newton Lacy Pierce Prizes from the
American Astronomical Society, and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award for her work. In
2011, she returned to Australia as Professor and an ARC Future Fellow at the Research School for
Astronomy and Astrophysics at the ANU.
In 2014, Professor Kewley was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science for her
fundamental advances in understanding of the history of the universe, particularly star and galaxy
formation.
Find out more about Professor Kewley and her research by visiting her profile page on the Australian
National University website.
For further information about this funding scheme please visit the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme
page on the ARC website.