Astronomy and Astrophysics

Undergraduate Degrees

The University offers a range of scholarships and prizes. Please see the Faculty pages for details.

Postgraduate Degrees

There are a number of postgraduate scholarships and top-up scholarships available for study at UWA, funded by the Commonwealth, the University, or our group. Please look at the information listed on the UWA Scholarship site, the School of Physics site or contact us. Scholarships are also available via the International Centre.

Vacation scholarships

For undergraduate students who have completed three years of a degree in physics, astronomy, computing, engineering, mathematics, or other related area, we offer summer vacation scholarships. Projects in the areas of astronomy, astrophysics, computing, engineering, radio astronomy and SKA are available. A tax-free stipend of $250pw is offered for Perth-based students; an additional accommodation and travel allowance is available for interstate students. Projects are expected to last 6 weeks sometime in the period Nov to Feb, to be negotiated with the supervisor. Application deadline (CV and name of at least one referee) is 30 September. Contact Professor Lister Staveley-Smith.

iVEC scholarships

The Western Australian iVEC supercomputing organisation offers internships in fields, which include astronomy, for 10 weeks over summer at a salary of $600pw. See http://www.ivec.org/pages/tiki-index.php?page=training%2Finterns. Contact Professors Lister Staveley-Smith or Peter Quinn to discuss possible projects which involve iVEC's specialist facilities which include high performance computing and visualization. Example projects are:

Parallelization of galaxy finding algorithms
Visualization of astronomical data cubes
Web serving of Galactic All-Sky Survey first data release
Use of open-MP for ASKAP galaxy survey simulations

Application deadline extended to 8 October 2008.

Australia-Oxford PhD Scholarships

Opportunities exist for SKA science and engineering studentships with joint supervision with Oxford University. Two engineering scholarships, tenable at Oxford University, are immediately available to Australian students (details here). Other science-based scholarships are also available. These will be funded by Oxford University, who will also provide annual travel back to Australia for co-supervision by UWA/Curtin staff. Two reverse scholarships will be based in Perth and will be co-supervised by staff at Oxford University. Application deadline for Perth-based scholarships 31 October. Contact Professor Lister Staveley-Smith (UWA), Dr Sascha Schediwy (Oxford), or Professor Steve Rawlings (Oxford).

CSIRO top-up scholarships

CSIRO offer Ph.D top-up scholarships ($7000pa) for students enrolled at Australian Universities. Current positions relevant to UWA are:

Star-formation and magnetic fields in nearby galaxies (CSIRO advert): Deadline 30 November 2008. Contact Lister Staveley-Smith.

SKA top-up scholarships

We are currently offering up to two top-up scholarships, valued at A$6000 per annum for international and Australian Ph.D students enrolled at UWA who are working on projects related to the SKA and SKA pathfinders. A summary of the conditions follows:

You must be offered a scholarship for study at UWA of at least the minimum (APA) level.
If you are an international applicant, must also have an arrangement to pay tuition fees (there are also scholarships for these).
You must enroll full-time as a Ph.D. student.

Please contact Professors Lister Staveley-Smith or Peter Quinn with your request for a top-up scholarship at the same time as you apply for a scholarship. See also the information at the UWA Scholarship site and the International Centre site.