Rachel Webster

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Rachel Webster
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields astrophysics
Doctoral students Emma Ryan-Weber

Rachel Lindsey Webster AO FAA (born 3 July 1951), is an Australian astrophysicist who became the second female professor of physics in Australia. Her main focus areas are extragalactic astronomy and cosmology; she researches black holes and the first stars of the universe. Webster has a doctoral degree from Cambridge University and has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Toronto and University of Melbourne.

Contents

Early life

Rachel Webster was born on 3 July 1951, in North East Victoria. She began her schooling at Tallangatta Primary School and then moved to Melbourne at the age of six, where she attended Blackburn South Primary School and later Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne. [1] Her father was an engineer and her mother a geography teacher; both encouraged Webster's interest in physics, science and mathematics from a young age. Webster was inspired to pursue astronomy after she attended a lecture at the University of Sydney in her final year of school. The lecture was on cosmology, presented by Robert May, one of Australia's most celebrated scientists.

Career

Webster graduated from Monash University in Melbourne in 1975 with a degree in astrophysics. However, let down by her experiences in the university, [2] Webster found herself within the Victorian Government's Public Works department, where she bought and sold real estate. After four years of success in that work, in her mid twenties Webster realised that she was not being completely fulfilled. [2] This lead her to write to Martin Rees, the head of astronomy at Cambridge University, who encouraged her to gain a master's degree in physics prior to being enrolled. [2] Webster completed an MSc at the University of Sussex in 1980 and, in 1985, completed her PhD on Gravitational Lensing and Cosmology at Cambridge University. [3] [4] She then undertook a postdoctoral position at the University of Toronto focussing on the Einstein Cross, a gravitationally lensed quasar. [4]

In 1992, Rachel Webster returned to the University of Melbourne, where she received a grant for research related to the Parkes Quasar Survey. [5] She was primarily concerned with how galaxies bend light, known as gravitational lensing. Today, her research group uses equipment including the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Gemini telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. [6] Webster is a member of the International Consortium, helping to design a new low-frequency radio telescope, to be installed in Western Australia. [7] Webster's ultimate aim is to identify the first sources of the universe. This information is being uncovered via her studies and detection of reionised hydrogen atoms and the structural analysis of neutral hydrogen clouds. She has also conducted research into quasar emission regions, cosmology, the Murchison Widefield Array and dark matter.

Webster has been the chair of the National Committee of Astronomy and co-created a Women in Physics Program, which has helped increase the number of women graduating in physics at the University of Melbourne. [8]

Honours and awards

Webster is also President of Academic Board at The University of Melbourne and has been awarded the Robert Ellery Lectureship.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quasar</span> Active galactic nucleus containing a supermassive black hole

A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass ranging from millions to tens of billions of solar masses, surrounded by a gaseous accretion disc. Gas in the disc falling towards the black hole heats up and releases energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The radiant energy of quasars is enormous; the most powerful quasars have luminosities thousands of times greater than that of a galaxy such as the Milky Way. Quasars are usually categorized as a subclass of the more general category of AGN. The redshifts of quasars are of cosmological origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gravitational lens</span> Light bending by mass between source and observer

A gravitational lens is matter, such as a cluster of galaxies or a point particle, that bends light from a distant source as it travels toward an observer. The amount of gravitational lensing is described by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity. If light is treated as corpuscles travelling at the speed of light, Newtonian physics also predicts the bending of light, but only half of that predicted by general relativity.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Judge, Astrid; Fitzpatrick, Jane, 1964- (2012), Heroes of Australian science, Macmillan Education, retrieved 23 November 2015{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. 1 2 3 Lunn, Stephen (27 June 2009). "First Impressions: Rachel Webster". The Australian. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  3. "Prof Rachel Webster". Find an expert. University of Melbourne. Awards. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  4. 1 2 "Prof. Rachel Webster – Research". University of Melbourne. 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2018.
  5. Bhathal, Ragbir; Bhathal, Jenny (1 January 2006). Australian Backyard Astronomy. National Library Australia. ISBN   9780642276322.
  6. "Rachel Webster". The Conversation. 4 July 2012. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  7. "Prof Rachel Webster". Find an expert. University of Melbourne. Overview. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  8. "Where Do Big Ideas Come From". ABC. 17 July 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2015.
  9. "Rachel Lindsey Webster, Media Notes, Officer (AO) in the General Division of The Order of Australia, Australia Day 2020 Honours List" (PDF). The Office of the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. 26 January 2020. p. 58. Retrieved 26 January 2020.
  10. "Women in Physics Lecturer" . Retrieved 23 November 2015.