CSIRO Alumni scholarship ceremony with Dr Douglas Bock

About the event

The CSIRO Alumni network and LCU are proud to present the 2026 CSIRO Alumni Physics scholarship award ceremony. We are pleased to invite our alumni, staff and friends to join us in celebrating the 2026 winner.

The event will be hosted by Dr Scott Martin, Dr Bob Steele and Helen Lorigan, CEO of LCU.

We are pleased to announce that our guest speaker will be Dr Douglas Bock, Director, Space and Astronomy, and Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF). Douglas represents Australia on the Council of the SKA Observatory.

We will also hear from our scholarship winner. Our selection committee are going through the scholarship applications, and we will be announcing the winner in early 2026. During our ceremony we will invite the winner to talk about their research and how they're using the scholarship funds to travel overseas.

If you are interested in taking a tour of CSIRO Lindfield and seeing our research in action, please register for our 1.45pm tour.

Following the event, we will be providing an afternoon tea in the foyer for people who would like to catch up with friends and former colleagues.

Dr Douglas Bock

Dr Douglas Bock is Director, Space and Astronomy, and Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF). Douglas represents Australia on the Council of the SKA Observatory.

CSIRO's Space and Astronomy business unit leads CSIRO's activities in the space sector. It draws together NASA's Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (operated by CSIRO), our Space Research Program and the CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation as well as CSIRO's radio astronomy activities (instrumentation, astrophysics research, SKA Observatory planning and pre-construction work, and the Australia Telescope National Facility).

From 2010 to 2016 Douglas was Theme Leader and then Program Director for ATNF Operations, leading the operation of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), Parkes Telescope, Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), and Mopra Telescope – which are used by more than 400 Australian and overseas scientists each year. He oversaw the transition of ASKAP and the Murchison Radio-Astronomy Observatory from construction to ASKAP early science. Douglas has also been active in planning for the international Square Kilometre Array project and looks forward to the opportunities ahead for Australia in radio astronomy, and working collaboratively with Australian Universities in evolving the role of the ATNF for the SKA era.

Background

Douglas enjoys working at the interface of astronomy and technology, and this has led to a career focussed on the design, construction, and operation of radio telescopes. From 2004 to 2009, before coming to CSIRO, Dr Bock was at the University of California, Berkeley, first as the construction Project Manager and then as Assistant Director – Operations for the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA). CARMA is an array of 23 radio dishes operating at millimetre wavelengths, jointly operated by five US universities.

During this period, Dr Bock was also a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Director for the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at UC Berkeley and the System Scientist for the Allen Telescope Array. His current scientific interests include all-sky radio-astronomy surveys, and studies of transient and variable phenomena at radio and millimetre wavelengths.

As Project Manager and Assistant Director - Operations for CARMA, Dr Bock led construction and operations from three months after groundbreaking through the early years of routine astronomical observations. As System Scientist for the Allen Telescope Array, he was responsible for constructing a prototype array, contributing to the science requirements, designing the spatial distribution of the antennas, and leading the process of obtaining environmental planning permission. Although only 42 over the planned 350 antennas were constructed, the ATA formed a key precursor to the international Square Kilometre Array telescope, an A$2.5 billion project.

Pricing

• Free

Dates and Times

Contact

Alexandra Mead

More information

About the Scholarship

The CSIRO Alumni Scholarship in Physics was established to commemorate the scientific contributions of Drs. John Dunlop, Tony Farmer, Gerry Haddad and Don Price who died in a helicopter crash in March 2013. The $6,000 travel scholarship helps post-graduate students visit and/or conduct research in an overseas or interstate institution such as a university or research establishment of international standing in the field of proposed research. We are keen to keep awarding this scholarship each year.

Funding for the scholarship is made possible by the generosity of family, friends, CSIRO alumni and colleagues of Drs. John Dunlop, Gerry Haddad, Don Price and Tony Farmer. The Scholarship team also acknowledges the generous contributions from the Laboratories Credit Union and CSIRO.

Please help us achieve this goal with your tax-deductible donation at: http://www.givenow.com.au/csiroalumni