Associate Professor in Astronomy
About Me: Publications CV
I'm an Associate Professor in the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia.
I received my PhD from the University of Texas in 2010. My PhD advisor was John Kormendy. My postdoc mentors were Alberto Bolatto and Karl Glazebrook.
I have been a CARMA Research Fellow, Swinburne Director’s Research Fellow and an Australian Future Fellow. I also served as the Deputy Director for the Centre for Astrophysics at Swinburne.
I enjoy studying galaxies with extremely high star formation rates. I use these galaxies to test theories of star formation and study the conditions in galaxies that are very common in galaxies 10 billion years ago, when most stars in the Universe formed. I am the lead investigator for the DYNAMO and the DUVET observational programs.
email: dfisher “at” swin.edu.au
Students: If you would like to a project in my group at undergraduate, honours or PhD please email me.
Telescopes!
I really like using telescopes of all kinds and all wavelengths. When I was eight years old, I had a really simple 3 inch telescope that could only really look at the moon. I’ve been hooked ever since.
I prefer research projects that are observationsally intensive, combining data from many different sources. I have made hands on observations with small optical telescopes, giant 10-meter class telescopes (Keck and VLT), and millimeter-wave interferometric telescopes (ALMA, NOEMA and CARMA).
I have programs on Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Observatory, and Herschel Space Observatory.
My latest crazy idea is to build and launch my own nano-scale satellite observatories.
Along with the projects I am leading (DUVET and DYNAMO which you can read about on) I am also involved in a number of research groups.
ASTRO 3D : I am a Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence ASTRO 3D. I am also lead of the Galaxy Evolution Theme within ASTRO 3D. We are a group of 15-20 members and a larger group of international collaborators. I would like to use this to move the group in the direction of more collaborative projects with HI astronomers using MeerKAT and ASKAP. Along with collaborating on projects we also host a number of mini-workshops and conferences. If you are interested in taking part in ASTRO 3D, and study galaxy evolution, please feel free to get in touch.
MAVIS: I am a member of the MAVIS science team. MAVIS is a next generation adaptive optics instrument for VLT. MAVIS will push AO toward the visible, and, using the Multi-Conjugate AO concept, will provide a 30”x30” wide field of view at an angular resolution close to the diffraction limit of the 8-m aperture.
LIGER: I am a science lead for the LIGER next generation AO instrument on Keck. This innovative spectrograph will take advantage of the improved Keck Adaptive Optics (AO) performance and advancements in large format near infrared detectors. It will make a significant advancement in sensitiity, field-of-view and sky coverage over current day AO systems and is intended to operate at 900 nm, allowing us to access the z=1 Universe and study the dawn of spiral galaxies.
ALMA CRISTAL: CRISTAL is an ALMA Cycle 8 Large Program that will observe in the [CII] 158 μm line and dust continuum 19 main-sequence, star-forming galaxies at z~4−5. With the combination of ALMA, HST, and JWST, CRISTAL will produce a systematic census of the gas, dust, and stars on kiloparsec scales when the Universe was only ∼1 billion years old. I am a member of the CRISTAL team and I’m interested in using CRISTAL to study outflows and extended gas in the earliest galaxies.
Equity and Inclusion in Science
I beleive that if people want to have science careers, and they are capable, they should be involved. There should be a place for them. It’s very simple and straightforward. We have to work to make sure that no one is left out due to their race, gender, religion, economic background or geographic origin. I participate in a number of initiatives that are aimed at achieving these goals, and aim to practice the efforts of promoting inclusive and diverserse atmospheres in my own research teams.
QueersInScience: I am an organiser for an Australia based group seeking to foster support for LGBTQIA+ researchers in STEM. In 2019 we held the first ever Australian symposium dedicated only to science from queer people, which had hundreds of people in attendance. We regularly hold career support and social events. In 2019-20 we recieved a grant from Australian Academy of Science to transform the group into a nation wide network.
When I’m not doing astronomy…
I am pretty fanatical about fantasy books and movies (just ask my students). I read about 100 fantasy books a year. I also write my own fantasy short stories and novels, just for fun with no intention of publishing.
I have one of the cutest dogs in the world. This is an empirical fact.
My oldest brother is a professional jazz musicion. You can listen here.
My middle brother is a high school football coach who is innovating ways to share coaching strategies. See Texas Football Chat.
Melbourne is a nice place to live. I keep myself entertained with colorful birds, ocean views and street art basically everywhere. Just going for a walk can be fun enough.
The logos below are some links to projects I’m involved in:
