The Australian Centre for Astrobiology

The Centre | Areas of Study | Scholarships

The Australian Centre for Astrobiology began life in July 2001 and moved into its new premises in November 2002. In addition to being an Associate Member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, it also has close links with the European Space Agency and other international space agencies and institutions. All of our postgraduate students spend some time overseas, most in some way with NASA. It is one of the few organisations in the world that is truly inter and multi-disciplinary in a way that is reflective of astrobiology as well as being the only centre of astrobiological research in Australia. Its key goals include contributing to the understanding of the orgin of life on Earth and to set an Australian life-seeking instrument on the surface of Mars. It also has a strong media, education and outreach program related to its research, and which has attracted Federal funding.

Areas of Study

Some of the areas where the ACA is active:

Palaeontology, Geology, Chemistry Check with us for scholarships in geoscience
Microbial life in ancient high temperature ecosystems
Earth's oldest lifeforms
Major asteroid/comet impacts with Earth
The evolution of microscopic lifeforms

Planetary exploration
Early life on Earth and the search for life on Mars

Microbiology
Microbial diversity in modern high temperature ecosystems, e.g. hot springs in South Australia and New Zealand

Astronomy
Understanding the origin of chirality in biological molecules
Searching for extrasolar planets by means of polarimetry
Formation of planetary systems

Cosmology
Origins of life: life as a quantum information processing machine

Science Communication Communication of astrobiology research to high school students and public audiences.

Note: Areas of study are not limited to the above, for example computer science is not yet included but is a possibility.

These include research in universities, space agencies and other institutions, working in industry and government, teaching and all forms of science communication including museums, journalism and other forms of science writing and audio/visual production.


Scholarships

The Centre prides itself on being a Centre of Research Excellence at Macquarie University. All scholarships require that the student has a First Class honours degree or a research masters degree or equivalent.

Australian Postgraduate Award: You can apply for a Government scholarship and if you are an Australian student we would encourage you to apply for this first.

Macquarie scholarships: For more information on scholarships please visit the Macquarie Universitie's Research Office website.

Last Updated: Dec 7, 2006