Upcoming Events

The ASA ECR Chapter is pleased to announce our virtual “How To” series, drawing upon the most pressing questions from our community. Join us for each session on Wednesdays, starting 2nd February 2022 and ending 16th March 2022.

Past Events

7 July 2021: Speed Meet-a-Mentor Virtual Event

This event was the virtual equivalent of the speed meet-a-mentor sessions that have been held in-person at ASA meetings in previous years, in which mentors are randomly paired with mentees for informal 1-on-1 chats. The event was held via Glimpse.

August-September 2020: Managing Your Career during a Pandemic

The ASA Early Career Researchers chapter hosted a virtual talk series touching upon how to manage your career and job search in the midst of a pandemic, with all its related stresses and dislocations. Recordings of the talks can be found on the ECR youtube channel.

  • Aug 5: Job market for researchers in a pandemic
  • Aug 12: Maintaining mental health and productivity
  • Aug 19: Networking in Isolation
  • Aug 26: Career pathways: Jobs in Academia
  • Sep 2: Career pathways: Jobs in Data-Science
  • Sep 9: Career pathways: Jobs in Bio-informatics & Health Sciences
  • Sep 16: Career pathways: Jobs in Geoscience, Environmental Science & Policy Analysis

October-December 2018: SciCoder workshops

The ASA ECR Chapter hosted a series of SciCoder workshops — “SciCoder: The Australian Tour presented by ASTRO 3D” — across Australia, enabled by ASTRO 3D and ADACS. SciCoder is created and taught by Dr. Demitri Muna who has been offering these workshops since 2010. The workshops are designed to introduce the early-career researcher to modern programming practices, languages, and tools as specifically applicable to scientific research. These skills will enable the participant to write better code, code faster, and leverage more tools than scientists are typically introduced to or aware of. An emphasis is placed on the rich variety of open-source software available. The dates and locations for the workshops are:

  • Oct 29 – Nov 2: SciCoder, Perth
  • Nov 19 – Nov 23: SciCoder, Melbourne
  • Dec 3 – Dec 7: SciCoder, Sydney

25-29 June 2018:

Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC

1-4 May 2018: ASA ECR Mentoring Workshop

This workshop was an opportunity to learn important (non-research) skills necessary to advance your career in academia or elsewhere, grow your network, and receive advice and guidance from our panel of mentors. And all of this in a slightly more relaxed setting (Pullman Resort, Bunker Bay, WA), away from the academic environment. The theme of this year’s workshop is “Follow your
Star“, and we touched upon on topics of career planning both academic and industry based, leadership and skill building.

9-14 July 2017:

Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT

3-8 July 2016:

Astronomical Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific Meeting, University of Sydney, NSW.

30-31 May 2016: ASA ECR Mentoring Workshop

This workshop was an opportunity to learn important (non-research) skills necessary to advance your career in academia or elsewhere, grow your network, and receive advice and guidance from our panel of mentors. And all of this in a slightly more relaxed setting at Yarra Valley Estates, VIC, away from the academic environment. The theme of this year’s workshop was “Survive and Thrive in Astronomy“, and touching upon on topics of career planning, leadership, nonacademic careers and mental health.

30 July 2015: SIfA EMCR Workshop

The aim of this workshop is to present career options for astronomers in industrial, technical or commercial positions, and in other branches of academia. The event is focused on career development for our students and early-career researchers, as well as highlighting the benefits that PhD graduates can bring to industrial, technical or commercial roles. This event is being organised by Sydney Institute for Astronomy and CAASTRO.

20 February 2015: ECR Mentoring online introduction

To commence our ECR mentoring scheme, we held an online kick-off session using Google Hangouts. This was approximately one hour, 11am-12pm, and the video is available on YouTube. The purpose of such a session was to discuss what people should be looking for in such a scheme, and how to start it in such a way to make the most from it.

27-28 November 2014: University of Southern Queensland writing retreat

The ECR chapter of the ASA will be holding a writing retreat at the University of Southern Queensland on Thursday 27th and Friday 28th November, directly following the fourth Australian Exoplanet Workshop. The retreat will be held on campus at the University of Southern Queensland, and will be free to attend. The goal is to provide a quiet and distraction free environment where ECRs can work on papers and grant applications, and also with a safe forum for helpful and constructive feedback. The days would be broken into two sessions, pre- and post-lunch, with the first couple of hours scheduled as writing time, with the final hour of a session for collaborative review. On the evening of Thursday 27th, the attendees are invited to meet in central Toowoomba for dinner and drinks, to help build a sense of community, and to strengthen their professional networks.

18 November 2014: The Annual CAASTRO ECR and Student Workshop.

Being held prior to the CAASTRO Annual Retreat, is “Running a Successful Research Project”. The session will be run by Phil Crosby from CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science from 9:30am – 4:00pm at University of Queensland on Tuesday 18 November. Catering will be provided throughout the day.

9 October 2014: Sydney ECR Happy Hour

As you know, there are many early-career researchers (ECRs) based at various astronomy institutes around Sydney. However, and unfortunately, there has so far been few opportunities to get to know each other. Hence, some of us have had the idea of inviting all Sydney based ECRs together for a simple social event on a semi-regular basis (every 3 months or so). The plan is to meet in a pub/restaurant, have an informal catch up, get to know each other, and share experiences, drinks and a good pub meal!

So you are cordially invited to the first of these events, which will take place on Thursday 9 October, 6pm onwards, @ the Harts Pub (Essex St, The Rocks).

10-11 September 2014: AAO Writing Workshop

The AAO is hosting a “Writing Session” Wednesday 10 and Thursday 11 September. The two goals of the workshop are to give ECRs a chance for some distraction free writing or other research with an opportunity for friendly peer feedback, and to help get to know one another. Most of the time will be quiet and informal, with it left to the participants as how to best spend their time. Some breakout rooms will be available for discussion. There will also be a group dinner on Thursday evening open to all ECRs and their plus ones (no need to have come to the writing workshop to come to the dinner).

22 July 2014: Speed Meet-A-Mentor session

Speed meet-a-mentor session (co-organised with the Women in Astronomy chapter of the ASA) at the ASA Annual Scientific Meeting at Macquarie University.

2-3 July 2014: 2nd ASA Early Career Researcher Mentoring workshop

Cedar Creek Lodges, Tamborine Mountain, Queensland

Workshop on “How to be an effective referee“, being held at CAASTRO, 44-70 Rosehill Street, Redfern, Sydney on Friday 29th November 2013.

Social mixer at the ASA Annual Scientific Meeting at Monash University, Melbourne, on Monday 8th July 2013.

ASA Early Career Researcher Mentoring Workshop 2012

External Events

Science at the Shine Dome Tuesday 27th May to Thursday 29th May 2014.

The 2014 ATNF/AAO Bolton Symposium: 27-28 November 2014. This symposium is intended for post-doctoral astronomers to showcase the excellent science that is being done with the breadth of facilities available with the ATNF and AAO.