The eROSITA X-Ray telescope has just completed its first all-sky survey, revealing a spectacular vision of the hot and energetic universe. The result has created a new map for astronomers, with this new survey capturing over one million objects – far exceeding the number discovered by previous X-ray telescopes. 

The success of eROSITA is particularly significant for AAL and the Australian astronomers involved with the project, who have been collaborating with eROSITA's international partners since before the telescope was put into orbit in July 2019. AAL is proud to represent all astronomers at Australian institutions via the agreement that makes these collaborations possible, signed between AAL and the German eROSITA Consortium (eROSITA_DE).  

The partnership with eROSITA_DE provides exciting new opportunities for multi-wavelength astronomy projects across the southern sky, with Australian astronomers able to undertake collaborative projects overseen by the joint AAL/eROSITA_DE Management Committee, see here for more information. A list of participating Australian facilities and institutions, plus updates on the eROSITA mission, can be found here.

Data collected by this first all-sky survey will no doubt keep the Australia-eRosita research collaborations busy for years to come. In the meantime, eROSITA continues to sweep the sky, having already started its second all-sky survey. 

For more on Australia's collaboration with the eROSITA mission, please follow this link or contact:

• Dr Matt Owers, Lead Scientist for the Australian eROSITA collaboration, or 
• Dr Lucyna Chudczer, AAL's eROSITA Program Manager.

AAL is currently seeking a new permanent, part-time Contracts and Finance Administrator, to be located in the Melbourne office (Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn Campus). 

Reporting to the Director of Operations, the Contracts and Finance Administrator will support the administration of AAL’s research infrastructure grants, the company’s reporting obligations and financial operations.

No travel or staff supervision is required as part of this role. As AAL is a small company, all members of staff are expected to spend some of their time assisting with general operations. AAL offers relaxed, flexible, family-friendly work arrangements. Under current COVID-19 restrictions, AAL staff are predominantly working from home. 

A full position description for the role of Contracts and Finance Administrator can be found here. 

The closing date for applications is 29 June at 9am.
Applicants should send their CV and a covering letter to: applications@astronomyaustralia.org.au

Any further questions about this role should be directed to James Murray, AAL Director of Operations: 
james.murray@astronomyaustralia.org.au  

The Astronomy Supercomputer Time Allocation Committee (ASTAC) has released a new Call for Proposals for Quarters 3-4 2020 (1st July to 31st December 2020). The deadline for this call is 5pm (AEST) Friday 29th May 2020.

Six million service units are available for allocation on national supercomputing facilities. This includes allocations for CPU-only and GPU-specific applications. The resources available are as follows: 

• NCI Astronomy Program: up to 4,000 kSUs on the new Gadi system (either purely CPU-based or mixed CPU-GPU calculations) 
• OzSTAR: up to 2,000 kSUs (1,200 kSUs prioritised for GPU-based projects) 

Please see the ASTAC information sheet for more detail, including how to apply, noting that applications are via an online proposal system, see link here.

For more information about ASTAC please contact AAL Senior Program Manager, Dr Robert Shen.

AAL would like to congratulate Dr Sarah Pearce, AAL Board Director, who was recently named  2020 Telstra New South Wales Business Woman of the Year.

Sarah also won the Public Sector and Academia award, recognising women who dedicate themselves to making an impact in education or public service. 

An internationally recognised physicist, Sarah leads a team of over 250 as the Deputy Director of Astronomy and Space Science at CSIRO. As part of her award, Sarah was commended for "her innovative space programs and committed to collaboration". See more about her achievement here.

AAL would like to congratulate Associate Professor Chris Power, from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at The University of Western Australia (UWA) Node, for being one of four recipients of the inaugural Australasian Leadership Computing Grants (ALCG).

These grants are the largest of their kind in Australian history and will allow all four recipients record-breaking access to NCI's Gadi supercomputer – a total of almost 180 million units of compute time. 

Chris will use the awarded time, along with colleagues from the University of Tasmania and the University of Hertfordshire, to create simulations of the jets produced by supermassive black holes, highlighting how these jets play a role in the formation of galaxies.

"We are delighted to have secured one of the inaugural ALCG awards – this is a significant amount of supercomputing time and it will allow us to tackle one of the big challenges in galaxy formation. In addition, it's great to see NCI investing in fundamental research in such a big way by offering these kinds of large awards – and I think the Australian astronomical community really welcomes this initiative." 
Assoc. Prof. Chris Power, UWA, ICRAR

Associate Professor Chris Power is a member of AAL's Science Advisory Committee (ASAC). The Australasian Leadership Computing Grants are funded by the Australian Government NCRIS scheme – see here for more information.

​For more about High Performance Computing (HPC), please contact Rob Shen, AAL Senior Program Manager.