Adam Deller
Adam Deller | |
|---|---|
| Born | Geelong, Victoria, Australia |
| Education | Swinburne University of Technology |
| Known for | Very Long Baseline Interferometry, DiFX software correlator, Fast Radio Bursts |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics, Radio astronomy |
| Workplaces | Swinburne University of Technology, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, ASTRON |
| Steven Tingay | |
Adam Deller is an Australian astrophysicist and educator.
He is a Professor of Astrophysics at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology.[1]
Deller is best known for his research into compact objects, including neutron stars and black holes,[2] and for developing the DiFX software correlator, a tool widely adopted in radio astronomy.[3] In 2020, he was awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science.[4]
Early life and education
[edit]Deller grew up in Geelong, Victoria, attending Western Heights College, where he graduated as school Dux in 1999.[5] He pursued his undergraduate studies at Swinburne University of Technology, completing a dual Bachelor of Engineering in electronic and computer systems with first-class honours.[5]
He shifted focus to astronomy during his postgraduate studies, earning a PhD in astrophysics from Swinburne University in 2008.[1] His doctoral thesis, titled Precision VLBI astrometry: Instrumentation, algorithms and pulsar parallax determination, laid the groundwork for high-throughput software processing of data gathered from radio telescope arrays.[5]
Career and research
[edit]Following his PhD, Deller worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in the United States and later held a research position at ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy.[5] He returned to Australia to join the faculty at Swinburne University of Technology, where he serves as an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and an Associate Investigator for the Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Research (OzGrav).[4]
Deller's primary research focuses on high-resolution radio astronomy, specifically using Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to measure the precise distances and movements of pulsars, neutron stars, and black holes.[2] His observational work has contributed significantly to tracing the local environments and origin points of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs).[2][6]
In addition to observational astronomy, Deller is the originator and primary coordinator of DiFX (Distributed FX ), an open-source, software-based correlator.[3] Developed during his doctoral studies, DiFX allows standard computer clusters to process data collected by geographically separated radio telescopes, replacing expensive, custom-built hardware architectures.[7] The software has become the de facto standard infrastructure tool utilised by major observatories globally, including the Australian Long Baseline Array, the Very Long Baseline Array (USA), and the Event Horizon Telescope network.[3]
Awards and recognition
[edit]- 2010: Awarded the Charlene Heisler Prize by the Astronomical Society of Australia for the best astronomy PhD thesis.[8]
- 2018: Received the Vice-Chancellor's Research Excellence Award at Swinburne University.[1]
- 2019: Awarded the Peter McGregor Prize by the Astronomical Society of Australia as part of the DiFX collaboration.[9]
- 2020: Awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science for outstanding early-career research in physics.[10][11]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "Adam Deller Profile", Swinburne University of Technology. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Staff Profile: A. Prof. Adam Deller", Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 "GPU Acceleration of the DiFX Software Correlator", Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS). Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 "Swinburne astronomer awarded Pawsey Medal for scientific excellence", Swinburne University News, March 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 "Adam Deller – Curriculum Vitae", Swinburne University Astronomy Department. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ CSIRO. "New measurement brings us closer to understanding the Universe' s rate of expansion". www.csiro.au. CSIRO. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
- ↑ Deller, A. T., Tingay, S. J., Bailes, M., & West, C. (2007). "DiFX: A software correlator for very long baseline interferometry using multi-processor computing environments." arXiv. doi:10.1086/513572.
- ↑ "Charlene Heisler Prize | Astronomical Society of Australia". Retrieved 2026-09-26.
- ↑ "Peter McGregor Prize awarded to DiFX team". Australia Telescope National Facility. 2019-08-05. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
- ↑ "2020 Honorific Awardees", Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
- ↑ "Pawsey Medal | Australian Academy of Science". science.org.au. Retrieved 2026-09-26.
