Lisa Harvey-Smith

Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith is the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador and a Professor of Practice at The University of New South Wales. Her role is to increase the participation of women and girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) studies and careers in Australia by driving systemic and cultural change.

As an astrophysicist, her research interests are in the birth and death of stars, cosmic magnetic fields and supermassive black holes. Professor Harvey-Smith serves on the Australian Space Agency’s Advisory Group and previously led a team of 30 scientists and engineers at CSIRO developing the Square Kilometre Array – a next-generation radio telescope that will survey billions of years of cosmic history. She is author of the popular science books When Galaxies Collide, The Secret Life of Stars and Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Bedtime.