Professor Matthew Colless

He was for nine years previously the Director of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO). He obtained his BSc at Sydney, his PhD at Cambridge, and has also held positions at Durham, Kitt Peak National Observatory and Cambridge. His research uses large redshift and peculiar velocity surveys of galaxies to understand their evolution and the large-scale structures they form, and to measure cosmological parameters.

Professor Colless is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an ISI Citation Laureate, a former Vice-President of the International Astronomical Union, a member of the European Southern Observatory Council, and the Founders’ Chair for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) project, a billion-dollar next-generation 25-metre optical telescope.