Name: Dr Vanessa Moss
Twitter handle: @cosmicpudding
What are you working on at the moment?
I'm part of a team of astronomers studying hydrogen in galaxies over the past 8 billion years. We are using the new Australian telescope ASKAP to make discoveries in a time of the universe's evolution that has previously been largely hidden. I regularly get to operate ASKAP, and point it at interesting galaxies to search for hydrogen!
What would you like to be working on in the future?
In the near future, I'd love to continue working with ASKAP and on its data as it becomes fully operational over the next couple of years! ASKAP will produce thousands of terabytes of amazing and complex data that I can't wait to get my hands on. In the future future, I have no idea! I love astronomy and I love data, so something combining the two would be excellent.
What was your view of science/technology/engineering/maths before you took it up?
As a kid, my parents were hugely encouraging about me having a broad range of interests including science, and I visited many museums, observatories and exhibits on science-related topics. I remember being blown away by Questacon at a very young age, but I also wanted to be a writer of children's books for the majority of my childhood. In early high school years, I found science kind of difficult and boring (too many wedges and pulleys!)... but by late high school it got really interesting again and I decided to possibly study it at university.
Who inspired you during your studies and why?
My high school physics teacher, Kevin Mahony, played a huge role in my interest in physics during Year 11/12. He was enthusiastic and made the subject fun and interesting, and also relevant. When I started university, I had the chance to work with some researchers on small projects as part of my course. During that time, I met Professor Anne Green and Dr Tara Murphy from the astronomy department, who later became my honours supervisors! Like Mr Mahony, they were super enthusiastic about their topic and convinced me even at that early stage that pursuing physics was both a noble and necessary cause.
Who inspires you now and why?
I'm particularly inspired by my current boss, Professor Elaine Sadler. She is an amazing astronomer, extremely passionate about the work we do, and also a really great person. As well as being the Director of CAASTRO, the head of the FLASH team and on various important astronomy committees, she still makes time to catch up with those of us working with her and we also hang out outside of work sometimes! The FLASH team has a lot of involvement with the ASKAP telescope commissioning team at the moment, and I'm also incredibly inspired by all the researchers and engineers and CSIRO staff who are making ASKAP happen. It's awesome seeing a telescope go into operation from this early stage, and I feel pretty privileged to be a small part of it.
Name three of the big issues you think need to be solved (by science or technology)?
1) Analysing and visualising huge amounts of multi-dimensional data. This is particularly important for us in astronomy, since the upcoming Square Kilometre Array radio telescope will produce an exabyte per day, which is a thousand million gigabytes, or the equivalent of downloading the movie Titanic 138.7 million times every single day. In fact, the amount of data we expect to come in from the SKA is greater than the processing power of computers today, so we're relying on Moore's Law and beyond to interpret all this data.
2) The scientific literacy of the country, and the world. Through education, outreach and science communication, it's really important for us in STEM roles to reach out to people. A lot of the people I have contact with through the University of Sydney, CSIRO or Sydney Observatory are pro-science and positive about STEM careers, but it's even more important for us to be able to communicate with those who don't have that stance, and don't think of themselves as benefiters from or supporters of science.
This was made very clear to me in a talk last year by Margaret Wertheim: "A society that doesn't care about science is a society that will not fund science." I want as many people as possible to know how cool, and important, science and technology really are!
3) The future of our planet. It's pretty terrifying to me that an incredible number of qualified scientists and organisations around the world have reached a consensus that climate change induced by humans is real and that there will be serious consequences if we continue to do so little about it. It seems like such an immense problem to solve, but I think the onus is on governments around the world to take the lead on this.
There was a video by David Mitchell on the burden of proof that made the issue very clear: there are two possibilities, climate change is real or it isn't, and there are two paths of action, either we do something or we do nothing. The only outcome of combining these that is negative is if it is real and we do nothing, in which case everyone might die due to the planet becoming uninhabitable. It seems really foolish to me to take that risk, and very obvious that big changes should be made.
What advice would you give to the younger you?
Depends on the age of the younger me, but I'd advise the younger me to start coding sooner! And possibly to do some formal training in computing, to better prepare me for the kinds of challenges we now face in astronomy. I probably also would have told my younger self not to eat so many cheeseburgers in late primary school.
How do you think Australian society views people in STEM careers?
I'm fortunate to be in a field of science that almost always makes people go, "Wow!" The study of the sky above us, and the universe in which we live, is a topic that various people in society can generally relate to because I think everyone has looked up at the night sky and wondered about our place in the universe at some point.
People are generally excited about astronomy, and always have great questions that they want to know the answers to. That said, I think the perception of scientists in a broader social context in Australia is of people who focus on some small aspect of research, aren't very "useful" to the general needs of society, and don't know much about the "real world" or how to communicate the importance of their findings with others.
How do you think we could change that perception?
Through the efforts of various science communicators and educators, I think this is changing already. But it needs to be clear that scientists are real people too, because there seems to be this perceived divide between scientists and the rest of society. The only thing that makes someone a scientist, in my opinion, is the ability to question and the desire to understand or solve a given problem based on evidence rather than belief.
It's the notion of critical thinking and evidence-based decision making, which everyone in Australia does at some level but may not realise. Wider awareness of the relevance of the scientific approach to people's everyday lives could help with changing this. In particular, inspiring the younger generation (and their parents) is of huge importance, and making everyone realise that you don't at all have to be a 'genius' to be a great scientist.
It's also important for parents to play a role in this, by encouraging and supporting their children in a diverse range of interests that hopefully include STEM subjects. We need parents on board with STEM too.
What are your passions outside of your profession?
I've played basketball for 13 years, and have played with the girls on my current team since around 2006 - we're currently top of the comp. I also am into treasure hunting, though not necessarily in the buried treasure sense.
Really, it's more like exploring the world and finding cool stuff along the way. Sometimes treasure. And I really like doing outreach as a guide at Sydney Observatory, although I guess this could be considered as a part of my profession. I do tours maybe once a week, with a group of around 20 interested people who I get to talk to about astronomy, objects in the night sky and what I do as an astronomer. It's lots of fun!
What's one assumption people make about you?
People are often surprised to find out that I'm really keen on coding and data, they seem to generally assume that this is not something astronomers (particularly female ones!) like very much. As well as using Python almost constantly as part of my career in astronomy, I also use it for a variety of other things. I used it to make an online tool called arXiver, which reprocesses new astronomy papers into a more visual and easy to read form.
I've also used coding along with astronomy equations to write a program that helps me figure out when galaxies are above the horizon in the Murchison desert, so I know when they can be observed with ASKAP. And I even used archival Bureau of Meteorology data to help me decide when the optimal time was to take a walk at the Australia Telescope Compact Array, in order to maximise sun but minimise heat. Being able to code things and visualise data is amazing!
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Find more STEM resources at: google.com.au/startwithcode
