Cool Jobs: Dark energy and dark matter

Participant: Professor Tamara Davis AM

Dark energy and dark matter are among the most profound puzzles facing fundamental physics. The University of Queensland’s Prof Tamara Davis is an astrophysicist who studies the elusive “dark energy” that’s accelerating the universe. With over twenty years in the field, she’s measured time-dilation in distant supernovae, helped make some of the largest maps of the galaxies in the universe and monitored hundreds of supermassive black holes.

Tamara did her PhD at the University of New South Wales on theoretical cosmology and black holes, then worked on supernova cosmology in two postdoctoral fellowships, the first at the Australian National University (collaborating with Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) and the second at the University of Copenhagen, before moving to Queensland to join the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey team working on mapping the galaxies in the universe. When not staring into space, she’s representing Australia at the World Championships for Ultimate frisbee!