ICRAR is pleased to announce that Jasmine White has been awarded the Renu Sharma Scholarship in Astronomy and Astrophysics.
2026 Renu Sharma Scholarship recipient Jasmine White. Credit: ICRAR
Jasmine is originally from Perth, and is completing her undergraduate degree in Physics at UWA before starting her Masters in Astronomy.
She previously completed a Summer Studentship at ICRAR’s Curtin node, and an undergraduate research placement with Dr Karen Lee-Waddell, now at AusSRC.
Jasmine also completed a summer internship at ICRAR in 2024, where she worked on a recently discovered group of 49 galaxies using the MeerKAT telescope. That research is currently being prepared for publication in a leading scientific journal, with Jasmine as a co-author.
Jasmine said receiving the scholarship was a pleasant surprise.
“I have gone for scholarships in the past, and had a lot of feedback that I’m a great applicant, but not been awarded anything,” she said. “It’s almost a validation that, actually, I am good enough to be here.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope provides data for several ICRAR projects, including Jasmine’s upcoming research. Credit: Adobe Stock.
Jasmine will be working with Professor Luke Davies on using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study the shapes of galaxies over time.
“I’m really excited to get started”, Jasmine said. “I’m hoping to go into astronomy research as a career, and be gaining knowledge that advances humanity’s big picture sense of the universe.”
The Renu Sharma Scholarship, named for Dr Renu Sharma, ICRAR’s founding Chief Operating Officer and Director of Translation and Impact, is funded by The University of Western Australia node of ICRAR to encourage and support participation of female and Indigenous students in astronomy and astrophysics.
Dr Sharma was inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame shortly before retiring in March 2025, after 15 years with ICRAR.
