Ms Teresa Slaven-Blair

Teresa works for Curtin University and ASTRO 3D to bring the science of the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR; the formation of the first stars and galaxies) to the public in her role as Outreach Coordinator. As part of this role she organises events and school visits, invents new ways to communicate the niche science to the uninitiated, maintains the Curtin EoR website, and whatever else comes her way.

Teresa has invented two novel children’s activities to communicate the complicated concepts of the EoR:

• Epoch of Bubbles – an activity designed to assist researchers give a visual and hands-on understanding of how the complex mathematical device of the Fourier Transform is used to understand the environment around the first stars, which in turn is used to understand the evolution of the stars themselves (the stars cannot be seen directly).
• Escape the CMB Maze – an activity designed for the public to explore the concept of random chance and a “random walk”. A random walk occurs in many places in the Universe, and explains why the light from the Sun takes many thousands of years to escape the Sun but only 8 minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun’s surface. This activity uses the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) to explain the phenomena.

Outreach awards:

• Horizon Award 2016, for excellence in astrophysics and science communication, Scitech Planetarium
• ASTRO 3D Annual Retreat Award 2019, for the biggest impact in education and outreach, ASTRO 3D

Teresa is also undertaking a PhD in Gravitational Wave (GW) astrophysics at UWA (this does not fall under the umbrella of ICRAR currently), with her supervisors Dr Eric Howell and A/Prof Chris Power. She is searching for any sign that a GW event, caused by the merger of the dead remains of massive stars, could be associated with flashes of light, especially a mysterious type of signal called a Fast Radio Burst.