Peter Quinn

Peter conducted graduate studies in astronomy and astrophysics at the Australian National University and received his PhD in 1982.

During postdoctoral appointments in Theoretical Astrophysics at the California Institute of Technology (1982-1985) and the NASA Space Telescope Science Institute (1985-1989) Peter pursued his research interests in galaxy formation and dynamics, computational cosmology and dark matter. In 1989, Peter took up a Research Fellowship at ANU to lead the Australian involvement in the MACHO Dark Matter Search Project with discoveries featured on the front cover of Nature in 1993. In 1995, Peter accepted a position as Division Head of the newly formed Data Management and Operations Division at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Munich.

While at ESO, Peter led the efforts to design, implement and operate the science data flow system for the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT). In August 2006, Peter took up a WA Premier’s Fellowship and became the Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Western Australia.

He was appointed the inaugural Executive Director of the new International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in 2009. Peter is Deputy Chair of the Australian and New Zealand SKA Coordination Committee, he became WA Scientist of the Year in 2012 and was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering in 2013 Role in CDM

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Home institution: UWA/ICRAR
Research Theme: Direct Detection, Theory