As Duffy was completing his doctorate, work was starting on the Australian component of the world's largest astronomical facility, the Square Kilometre Array.
 His doctoral work had covered similar topics, and he was invited to join the first stage of this telescope; the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).

He moved to Perth, Western Australia in 2009 to take up the position at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research.

Three years later, he moved to Melbourne to accept an academic post as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he investigated the formation of the first galaxies in the early universe.

Then in 2014 he took up the position of Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, still based in Melbourne.

His supercomputer simulations have shown that in very early galaxies, the rate of star formation was not enough to consume the infalling cold gas.
 Earlier models had assumed this was essentially molecular hydrogen, but the model from Duffy and the DRAGONS ("Dark-ages, Reionization And Galaxy-formation Observables Numerical Simulation") consortium also accounted for atomic (non-molecular) hydrogen.
 As a result, there was a deficit in the amount of gas that could form stars compared to the amount flowing in.
By modelling the galaxies like an economy, Duffy was able to show that the early galaxies were in a "Great Galactic Recession".
Those simulations focusing on the dark matter around galaxies demonstrate that without the dark matter, there would not have been enough time since the start of the universe for our galaxy to form.

He has attempted to directly detect this dark matter as part of SABRE ("Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection"), an international research consortium with teams in Italy, USA and Australia.
 SABRE is constructing the southern hemisphere's first dark matter detector 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) underground in a gold mine in Stawell, Victoria.
He is also part of two Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence, investigating the origin of matter (ASTRO-3D) and seeing the Universe with gravitational waves (OzGrav),
and he was a member of the worldwide OWLS (OverWhelmingly Large Simulations) collaboration.
As Duffy was completing his doctorate, work was starting on the Australian component of the world's largest astronomical facility, the Square Kilometre Array.  His doctoral work had covered similar topics, and he was invited to join the first stage of this telescope; the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP).
He moved to Perth, Western Australia in 2009 to take up the position at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research. 
Three years later, he moved to Melbourne to accept an academic post as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he investigated the formation of the first galaxies in the early universe.
Then in 2014 he took up the position of Associate Professor at Swinburne University of Technology, still based in Melbourne.
His supercomputer simulations have shown that in very early galaxies, the rate of star formation was not enough to consume the infalling cold gas.  Earlier models had assumed this was essentially molecular hydrogen, but the model from Duffy and the DRAGONS ("Dark-ages, Reionization And Galaxy-formation Observables Numerical Simulation") consortium also accounted for atomic (non-molecular) hydrogen.  As a result, there was a deficit in the amount of gas that could form stars compared to the amount flowing in. By modelling the galaxies like an economy, Duffy was able to show that the early galaxies were in a "Great Galactic Recession". Those simulations focusing on the dark matter around galaxies demonstrate that without the dark matter, there would not have been enough time since the start of the universe for our galaxy to form.
He has attempted to directly detect this dark matter as part of SABRE ("Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection"), an international research consortium with teams in Italy, USA and Australia.  SABRE is constructing the southern hemisphere's first dark matter detector 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) underground in a gold mine in Stawell, Victoria. He is also part of two Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence, investigating the origin of matter (ASTRO-3D) and seeing the Universe with gravitational waves (OzGrav),
and he was a member of the worldwide OWLS (OverWhelmingly Large Simulations) collaboration.
Alan Duffy (astronomer)