Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Helping to ensure the safety and enjoyment of SF fans
Application of commercial supercomputing to astronomy. My research is to find out by experience whether, and to what extent, radio astronomers can use commercial High Performance Computing to do the very large scale data processing demanded by modern radio telescopes. * Blind search for Fast Radio Bursts in MWA archive data, using DUG supercomputer and Amazon Web Services commercial cloud. The Astronomical Journal https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad6f9c https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.12200 * GASKAP imaging the movement of HI gas in the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds, using an imaging process updated and optimised for DUG supercomputer in Perth. Astronomy & Computing https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ascom.2024.100901 https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2411.17118. * Experiences of commercial supercomputing, investigated via interviews with researchers and HPC providers using Thematic Analysis. Astronomy & Computing https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ascom.2025.101013 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.17657 8+ co-author papers, full list at Orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6637-9987
* Solar system modelling especially Earth's L4 & L5 Lagrange points * UGSU cataclysmic variable stars - especially VW Hyi * Processing of data from FAST - large single dish radio telescope Paper published in Southern Stars South https://www.variablestarssouth.org/vss-newsletter-july-2020/nl_2020-3.pdf
Helping to ensure that patrons of WASO have a smooth experience.
Researching the application of commercial supercomputing to next generation radio astronomy
Working on site in Onslow was awesome I loved every minute of it! I led the lean sigma process improvement program at the Wheatstone LNG site. Major projects included establishing the correct staffing of the (offshore) platform laboratory, improvement of gas turbine preventative maintenance, analysis of staff requirements for the warehouse and the waste management functions. The finance dept signed off over $100 million savings and extra production in one year. During construction, a lot of expediencies were put in place, so after transition to ops, this job was, to be honest, like shooting fish in a barrel. On my last work day in Onslow, the manager dude made a long speech praising continuous improvement, lean sigma etc and pointing out that it was the only proven way to give lasting business improvements. He didn't seem to know that I was being sent back to Perth to be made redundant because my whole continuous improvement department was being disbanded :-)
Asset Development Technology Team Leading role in identifying technology needs and technology sourcing strategy, and defining projects to introduce new technologies to add value within Chevron. My main concern was to ensure good project management and good governance of our technology spend, across a very wide range of subject areas, including: * Health Environment & Safety (incl. remote sensing, waste remediation, cyclone prediction) * Well Systems (incl. light well intervention, multilateral completions) * New Field Development (incl. technology risk assessment & valuation) * New Zealand Asset Development (incl. hydrate mapping and stability) * Central Australia Development (incl. CO2 monetisation, high temperature downhole tools) In some cases I provided direct project management, most noticeably the field implementation of our new technology for remediation of oily waste, and data analytics. It was heaven for a technically-minded person like me who prefers doing things to the grandstanding and promo work that seemed to engross a lot of people in Chevron middle management. If you've got a 'difficult' project that's under-performing, or poorly defined... send it to me!
Developed the subsurface data management strategy, carried out business advocacy and obtained resources to establish program team and business governance structure. At the time this was the leading DM effort in the corporation globally and led to the Global Upstream data management standards project. I established and led the Australian subsurface data management program team of up to 35 staff before branching this off under a full time program manager - who turned out to be excellent and was able to drive towards the strategic goals despite corporate amnesia and inertia; step forward Desiree Koch! I also created and led a team of six in Asset Development managing the workflows of well data, physical samples, seismic data and field production data as a service for all asset teams in the business unit. Once again I worked hard to deliver excellence in 'back office' stuff that most managers don't care about. You know the old cliche that it's people that make a company work..... well this is where I really found out that it was true.