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Graduate Profiles

Richard Lane BSc Major in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2002

Why did you choose your degree at Macquarie University?

"I had been working for 6 years after I finished high school and discovered one day that I was bored, sick of being on autopilot every day at work (I was managing a large hotel in the CBD at this stage) so I decided to do something about it. I bought the UAC book, flicked through it and saw a degree called something like "BSc (Astronomy and Astrophysics)" at Macquarie University. I already knew I was interested in astronomy so I thought it sounded perfect. I looked through the rest of the UAC book and, finding no other degrees with similar glamour in their title I decided to apply for that. I didn't have the UAI but I'd heard that universities will sometimes admit mature age students with a UAI below the cutoff.

I'm a strong believer in life experience and I think that taking seven years out before going back to study was the best possible way to do it. By that stage I knew what I wanted to study (for myself, not for my parents and not for a big salary at the end) and I felt like I was doing something for myself, really for the first time. It was such a great feeling to be doing that. I can still remember the first few weeks at Macquarie, walking around the grounds in the Summer sunshine going to a maths lecture and thinking how wonderful this was compared to my job that I had only finished a couple of weeks earlier. I still feel like that most days. I'm very glad I made that decision."

Employment (July 2007): Postgraduate Researcher, Astronomy Guide

"I am now (still) studying. Having finished my degree I decided I was going to go further and try to attain my PhD. I'm doing this at Sydney University. What my "job" (and believe me, a PhD is just like a job) entails at the moment is looking for new dwarf galaxies in the Local Group of galaxies (comprised of the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy and about 35 dwarf galaxies). I am doing this by looking at an All Sky Survey (2MASS) dataset which covers 99.99% of the entire sky. I'm analysing this dataset by writing a piece of software that looks for (generally extremely faint) streams of stars that have been tidally stripped from the dwarf galaxy by the (much greater) gravitational field of the Milky Way/Andromeda.

Since starting my degree at Macquarie in 1999, I began working for Sydney Observatory as an Astronomy Guide on night tours. This involves taking groups of people (general public, school and scout groups, among others) on tours of the Observatory, presenting shows in the 3D theatre and taking them on "tours" of the Southern night sky - showing them the beautiful sights through a telescope. This is extremely rewarding since I love talking to people about Astronomy!"

How has your degree from Macquarie University helped you in your career?

"I identify a large range of skills that benefit me in my research and work: Communication - extremely important for presenting talks/seminars at conferences and also written communication skills that are very important during the course of any degree. Communication is also very important in my research since many people I work with (from various observatories throughout the world) are from non-English speaking countries and therefore clear communication is vital. Computer programming - also extremely important when involved in research. I have become quite adept at programming in Fortran and use MATLAB and IDL regularly as well. Analysis - data analysis is a major part of everyday work for me. This is an invaluable tool and one I will continue to develop throughout my career. Knowledge - since beginning my undergrad degree, my knowledge of physics, maths and astronomy have increased more than I could have hoped. Working in an environment where all of my colleagues are all in different research areas in physics makes it so easy to assimilate information from all sorts of topic areas. Conferences, international schools and a close working environment with my collaborators also helps with this of course!"

Reflections and advice

"Physics contains a lot of maths! Believe it or not, I did not really think about that point before starting my studies at Macquarie. I was always good at (and enjoyed) maths at school but did not make the connection between maths at school and physics at university despite having also studied some physics at school! Research in physics needs computer programming. It's well worth getting to know how to program (in whatever language takes your fancy) as soon as possible. My advice to anyone considering beginning tertiary studies (and I consider this the most profound thing I can possibly say on the topic) is, study a field you ENJOY not something you feel OBLIGATED to do. I have seen far too many people go through university doing something they don't like because they think it will get them a job that will make them lots of money or because they are trying to do something (anything) that will placate their parents. I consider both of these reasons for studying at a tertiary level the worst possible reasons to do so."