Ms Laura Serrano Rodriguez

I am a final-year Master’s of Astrophysics Student at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at the University of Western Australia (UWA), where I am specialising in galaxy evolution through cosmological simulations.

My research interests lie in understanding galaxy evolution, specifically the role that galaxy interactions and mergers play in it. For my Master’s project, I am investigating the effects that galactic interactions and mergers have on the metallicity of the interstellar medium in galaxies using state-of-the-art Cosmological Simulations under the supervision of Associate Professor Claudia del P. Lagos.

Before pursuing my Master’s, I completed a Bachelor of Science (Physics) degree at Curtin University in 2024, specialising in the Astrophysics stream. I conducted a Physics research project, under the supervision of Dr. Nick Seymour, focused on ultra-high redshift galaxies. I identified and analysed five compact and obscured ultra-high redshift radio galaxies using data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). I have also completed an internship at the ICRAR node in Curtin University in 2022 under the EEMS Summer Vacation Scholarship, offered by Curtin University.

I am also a passionate science communicator, conveying science, specifically astronomy, to a diverse audience through my work at the Scitech Discovery Centre as a science communicator and planetarium presenter, as well as my previous work as an astronomer at the Gravity Discovery Centre and Observatory.