Professor Richard de Grijs joins us from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at Peking University where he recently served as Associate Director of the Institute.

Richard is an outstanding astronomer and has been at the Institute since 2009 where he built a large international postdoctoral fellowship program and is deeply involved in numerous international professional organisations in China and beyond.

He is on the Board of Directors of ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID), is Deputy Editor of Astrophysical Journal Letters and has won a number of travelling fellowships including the Selby fellowship in Australia. Richard’s research interests include the relationship between galactic collisions and star formation, and distance calibrations in the Universe.

Before moving to Australia, Richard was based in Beijing, however explains he was looking for a position with a longer-term future.

“I have been looking for new opportunities and career advancement,” Richard says.

“I was already familiar with a number of the scientists at Macquarie, at least in my field, and one of my former students actually moved here as a Macquarie Fellow.”

Richard is really looking forward to working with a wide variety of people and is aiming to increase Macquarie’s international visibility.

“Outside of the University, I am keen to play a role in ‘civic society’, which I found to be really quite underdeveloped in Beijing.”

Associate Professor Tracy Rushmer will be working with Richard in the area of global engagement and with higher degree research students. While Richard is heading out on delegations overseas, he and Tracy will work on what the best research area to focus on for each individual visit is and how to inform potential research partners about our strengths and opportunities for collaboration.

“I am very much looking forward to having him in our Associate Dean team, hearing how the visits go when he is on a delegation trip and his latest research,” she says.

“He also has a great Twitter account (@tallstarman) and am hoping he gives me hints!”