What will the SKA study and what are job prospects there?

[Teresa]

Does anyone know what kinds of things are being planned for study at the SKA when its built?

i know its going to be a radio telescope, and hopefully in Australia/NewZealand instead of South Africa (it'll be based only a few hours out of Perth WA, where i live )...

and also, what do you think the chances of a local, recently graduated astrophysics student will have of getting a job there? lol

 

[matt.o]

Hi Teresa,

Does anyone know what kinds of things are being planned for study at the SKA when its built?

I can tell you the final decision between Aus/SA will be made in 2010/2011. In terms of science, have a read of http://www.atnf.csiro.au/projects/ska/science.html" page. Currently, there are demonstrator telescopes such as xNTD (or miranda) being built. Also, australian astronomy has received some good funding from the government for this project (~$100 million), so there should be jobs going.

However, jobs in Australia in Astronomy are hard to come by, particularly for people without a PhD. If you want to stay in WA, then I would suggest you do a PhD at ATNF in NSW and try to get a job back in WA when you have finished. Alternatively, you could work on gravity wave stuff (see http://www.gravity.pd.uwa.edu.au/" ).