Lisa Harvey-Smith

Lisa Harvey-Smith (born 1979) is a British-Australian astrophysicist, Australia's first Women in STEM Ambassador and Professor of Practice in Science Communication at the University of NSW.
Prior to October 2018 she was a research scientist at the CSIRO, based in Sydney, New South Wales as a Research Group Leader at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. Her research interests included the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, supernova remnants, the interstellar medium, massive star formation and astrophysical masers.
She was previously the Project Scientist for CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), during which time she led the development of the ASKAP Early Science Program, which began in 2015.
She was a presenter on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation television series "Stargazing Live" and the associated program "Stargazing Live: Back to Earth" in 2016. In the same year, she was a guest on the BBC series "Stargazing Live" and on Episode 6 (buoyancy) of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation series "Todd Sampson's Life on the Line".
Education.
Harvey-Smith attended Finchingfield Primary School, where her mother was the headteacher. She was home educated between 1991 and 1996.
Harvey-Smith attended Braintree College. She obtained her Master of Physics degree at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2002 and was awarded her PhD in Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory from the University of Manchester in 2005 supervised by R. J. Cohen.
In 2004 she was a member of the Jodrell Bank Observatory team on the BBC television quiz show "University Challenge", narrowly defeating the British Library.
Career and research.
Harvey-Smith worked as a support scientist at the Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe in the Netherlands, where she carried out real-time testing of the European VLBI Network telescope array, was responsible for science data quality control and took part in some of the first global real-time electronic VLBI experiments. During this time she worked on polarimetric studies of galactic masers and their relation to magnetic fields in regions of massive star-formation.
Harvey-Smith was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Sydney from 2007 to 2009, where she published work on the role of magnetic fields in the shaping of supernova remnants and a study of large-scale magnetic fields in galactic regions of ionised gas surrounding massive star clusters. 
From 2009 until 2011, Harvey-Smith was Chair of the Australia Telescope National Facility's Telescope Time Assignment Committee. She is a current member of the School of Physics Advisory Committee at the University of New South Wales. Harvey-Smith was an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) (2016-2019). In 2018 she was appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Computing, Engineering, and Maths at Western Sydney University.
Square Kilometre Array.
Harvey-Smith was CSIRO Square Kilometre Array Project Scientist from 2009 to 2012: contributing to the development of the SKA's science and engineering and playing a role in the Australia & New Zealand bid to host the SKA. In May 2012 it was announced that the SKA would be constructed in both Australia and Southern Africa.
In August 2012 Harvey-Smith was appointed CSIRO Project Scientist for the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope (ASKAP) telescope. She is also an associate member of the SKA Magnetism Science Working Group 
Public understanding of science.
In 2015, Harvey-Smith performed several live events on-stage, including her self-penned "Stargayzing" show at Sydney Observatory as part of Sydney Mardi Gras, the opening of "An Evening with Neil DeGrasse Tyson" at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, and as a guest in "Buzz Aldrin: Mission to Mars": a two night event held in Sydney and Melbourne. In 2016, Harvey-Smith hosted the Q&A session for the Australian tour of "Eugene Cernan-The Last Man on the Moon". In 2017, Harvey-Smith appeared as co-host, along with Brian Cox and Julia Zemiro, in the three-part ABC Television version of the BBC programme "Stargazing Live". 
Other television appearances include a feature on "Australia Wide", "Landline", the ABC Splash Live Event for World Space Week, ABC News 24, 702 ABC Sydney. She has also appeared on radio numerous times including the science hour on Triple J with Karl Kruszelnicki and "The Science Show" on ABC Radio National with Robyn Williams. In 2012, Lisa gave the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics Public Lecture, which is broadcast regularly by TVOntario as part of the Big Ideas TV series.
Harvey-Smith has also featured in "Women's Health", "The Age", "The Australian", "The Sydney Morning Herald", "The Sun-Herald", "The Sunday Telegraph" and Al Jazeera English. She has written articles for The Conversation and ABC Science. Her article about the Square Kilometre Array in Patrick Moore's "Yearbook of Astronomy 2016" was published by Pan MacMillan in November 2015.
Harvey-Smith is a guest science teacher at Leichhardt Public School as part of the CSIRO Scientists in Schools Program. She has made several visits to the Pia Wadjari Community School in Western Australia to lead astronomy activities and mentor students. She has appeared at the Bluedot Festival.
In January 2019 she became Professor of Practice in Science Communication at the University of NSW.
Her first book, titled "When Galaxies Collide" was published in July 2018.
Women in Astronomy.
From 2012 to 2015 Harvey-Smith was Chair of the Women in Astronomy Chapter of the Astronomical Society of Australia. During that time she presided over the launch of a new national gender equity scheme for astronomers in Australia called The Pleiades Awards.
In May 2017 she was announced as the ambassador for Science & Technology Australia's Superstars of STEM initiative and in October 2018 she was selected as Australia's first Women in STEM Ambassador. As Women in STEM Ambassador she will spearhead the Government's effort to encourage girls and women to study and work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields on a national scale.
Awards and honours.
On 31 August 2016, Harvey-Smith was awarded the Australian Department of Industry, Innovation and Science Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Australian Science Research, after being a finalist in 2015 Eureka Prize. In November 2012, "The Sydney Morning Herald" included Harvey-Smith in its "Top One Hundred: Sydney's Most Influential People".