2022 Laureate Profile: Professor Timothy Bedding 

 

Professor Timothy Bedding 

Administering Organisation: The University of Sydney 

Fellowship Project Summary 

FL220100117 – How Old Are the Stars? Looking Inside Stars with Asteroseismology 

Professor Bedding will use the study of ‘starquakes’ (stars experiencing events like earthquakes) to dramatically advance our understanding of stars. This project aims to exploit the wealth of data coming from high-profile international space missions to probe star interiors in extraordinary detail and measure their ages with unparalleled accuracy. Establishing accurate ages for stars will significantly build on Australia’s world-leading contributions to understanding how our Milky Way galaxy formed and developed. The research team will employ new scientific methods to achieve these results, creating publicly available data sets to inform research and teaching. This project will provide opportunities for Australia to lead collaborations with the world’s top institutions and for Australian researchers to participate in global research programs, that will provide training in analytical and computational skills that are needed for jobs in Australia’s key technology sectors, including the research, health, and financial sectors. The new understanding of stars generated by this project will inform decisionmakers as well as the public about Australia’s place in the universe. Knowledge of starquakes applied to our own sun can inform predictions about space weather events that have the potential to disrupt satellites and global communications systems. 

Australian Research Council funding: $2,497,216 

Find out more about Professor Timothy Bedding and their research areas of interest to date by visiting their profile page here: University of Sydney

For further information about this funding scheme, please visit the Australian Laureate Fellowships page.

Image credit: The University of Sydney