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Annual Report 2009-2010 ICRAR AnnuAl RepoRt 2009-2010 Annual Report 2009/10 Document ICRAR-DOC-0016 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 FRONT COVER: Top Left: A group photo of some members of the ICRAR Board, ICRAR Executive and Professor Richard Schilizzi (Director SKA Program Development Office) at the launch of ICRAR, 1 September 2009 – photo Jurgen Lunsmann Top Right: The Murchison Wide-field Array 32 tile system on the Murchison Radio- astronomy Observatory June 2010 – photo Paul Bourke and Jonathan Knispel, WASP Middle Left: Three-dimensional supercomputer model of supernovae 1987a – image Toby Potter, ICRAR Middle: Year 10 students attending the “Out There” SKA event in March 2009 - photo Paul Ricketts, Centre for Learning Technology UWA Middle Right: Supercomputer simulation of hydrogen gas in the early Universe – image Dr Alan Duffy, ICRAR Bottom Left: Radio emission from the inner core of the galaxy Centaurus A as seen by the first disk of the ASKAP telescope coupled to a dish in New Zealand 5500 km away – image Prof Steven Tingay (ICRAR) / ICRAR, CSIRO and AUT Bottom Right: Stars and gas in the colliding galaxy NGC 922 – image Prof Gerhardt Meurer (ICRAR) and Dr Kenji Bekki (ICRAR) 2 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary ..............................................................................................5! 1.1 Major Developments and Highlights of 2009/10 ................................................5! 1.2 National and International Collaborations..........................................................6! 1.3 Issues associated with the SKA bid...................................................................8! 2.0 ICRAR Governance and Management................................................................11! 2.1!Governing Board..............................................................................................11! 2.2!Management Structures and Systems.............................................................12! 2.3!ICRAR Financial Systems................................................................................13! 2.4!Meetings and Activities ....................................................................................14! 3.0 ICRAR Research Program Progress, Highlights and Achievements ..................16! 3.1 Science ............................................................................................................16! 3.1.1 Galaxy Assembly and Evolution................................................................16! 3.1.2 Variable Universe......................................................................................17! 3.1.3 High Angular Resolution Radio Astronomy...............................................18! 3.2 ICT Program ....................................................................................................20! 3.2.1 Data Intensive Research Pathfinder (DIRP) .............................................21! 3.2.2 SKA Design Study.....................................................................................23! 3.2.3 HPC for Radio Astronomy.........................................................................23! 3.3 Engineering Program.......................................................................................24! 3.3.1 Engineering Laboratory.............................................................................26! 3.3.2 MWA and Next-Generation Aperture Arrays.............................................26! 3.3.3 High Angular Resolution Systems.............................................................27! 3.3.4 High Time Resolution Systems .................................................................27! 3.4 MRO.................................................................................................................27! 3.4.1 MWA..........................................................................................................28! 3.4.2 ALO ...........................................................................................................29! 3.4.3 EMC ..........................................................................................................29! 4.0 ICRAR Education and Outreach: Highlights and Achievements .........................31! 4.1 Schools ............................................................................................................31! 4.2 Tertiary.............................................................................................................31! 4.3 Community.......................................................................................................32! 4.4 National Engagement ......................................................................................32! 4.5 International Engagement................................................................................33! 4.6 ICRAR Online: Sept’09 – June’10 ...................................................................34! 4.7 Publications .....................................................................................................35! 5.0 Industrial Engagement and Collaboration ...........................................................36! 6.0 Intellectual Property (IP) Management and Commercialization Report ..............37! 7.0 ICRAR Publications 2009/10...............................................................................38! 7.1 Refereed Journals: 47 papers .........................................................................38! 7.2 Conference Proceedings: 6 papers .................................................................42! 8.0 ICRAR Staff, Associates and Visitors 2009/10....................................................44! 8.1 ICRAR Staff .....................................................................................................44! 8.2 ICRAR Associates ...........................................................................................45! 8.3 ICRAR Visitors.................................................................................................46! 8.4 ICRAR-Hosted Seminars.................................................................................47! 9.0 ICRAR Students ..................................................................................................50! 9.1 PhD and Masters .............................................................................................50! 9.2 Honours Program ............................................................................................51! 3 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 10.0 ICRAR Financial Report and Audited Statements.............................................52! 11.0 Acronyms ..........................................................................................................54! 4 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 1.0 Executive Summary This is the first annual report of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). The report covers the period from the first ICRAR Board Meeting on 10 February 2009 until 30 June 2010. The agreements that define ICRAR (the Joint Venture Agreement, the State Funding Agreement and the Centre Agent Agreement) were signed on 19 August 2009 and ICRAR was formally launched on 1 September 2009. Future reports will contain activities in the July-June timeframe. A list of Acronyms is given in section 11.0 of this report The Executive Summary also includes, in section 1.3, information about some of the broader issues associated with the SKA bid. 1.1 Major Developments and Highlights of 2009/10 The first year of activities at ICRAR has been one of significant growth: • In terms of people, the total complement of staff and students has grown by more than a factor of two. Two ARC Future Fellowships and five Super Science Fellowships were awarded to ICRAR – more than any other astronomical organisation in Australia. • In terms of a joint venture of two universities, two young centres of astronomy science and engineering research (the Curtin Institute for Radio Astronomy and UWA Astronomy and Astrophysics) have grown into two research nodes within one coordinated and collaborating organisation through 100% membership in, and commitment to, ICRAR. • In terms of resources, ICRAR has moved into two world-class buildings that showcase our efforts. In the near future, one of the top 20 supercomputer centres in the world will be on our doorstep. • And finally, in terms of commitment and achievement, ICRAR is now the largest contributing organisation to several work packages within the international PrepSKA program, and has made major contributions to the Australian SKA bid through a new VLBI demonstrator and SKA configuration studies. This significant growth would not have been possible without the generous funding made available by the WA State Government, the Curtin University of Technology and The University of Western Australia plus the guidance and advice provided by the ICRAR Board and the ICRAR Science and Technology Advisory Committee. 5 ICRAR Annual Report 2009/10 11 August 2010 ICRAR Level 1 KPIs for 2009/10 • Completion of high level defining agreements by 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 19 August 2009 • Construction and submission of Version 1 draft of ICRAR Plan, including STE Plan by 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 17 August 2009 • Launch of ICRAR 1 September 2009: ACHIEVED on 1 September 2009 • Defined relationship with iVEC on Pawsey Centre by June 2010: PARTIAL- ONGOING (see section 2.2) • Launch of ICRAR website by October 2009: ACHIEVED in
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