Dr David Williams to head CSIRO Information Sciences Group

In a major coup for both CSIRO and the Australian Space Industry, Dr David Williams has been appointed as the head of CSIRO's Information Science Division. The Information Science Division covers astronomical and space sciences, digital productivity and services, information and communication technologies and mathematical and statistical sciences and has around 1200 staff.

Dr David Williams (Photo Credit: CSIRO)

Dr Williams is currently the chief executive of the UK Space Agency and has been a key figure in the creation of the agency and growth in the space sector over the past few years.

Dr Williams comes with both major credibility and contacts within the international space industry - something that is sure to benefit the Australian Space Industry over the coming years starting with the release of the Australian National Space Policy later this year.

What will be of direct interest to Australia is that the United Kingdom previously operated British National Space Council, which was a collection of all UK civilian government departments that operated in the space domain. This arrangement left the BNSC with no ability to drive overall space policy within the UK, a scenario that Australia currently finds itself in. Dr Williams helped transition the BNSC to the current UK Space Agency, which has led to recent growth within the UK Space Industry, and widespread praise for the stronger economic and scientific benefits from the new arrangements. In  2010/2011 the UK Space Industry turnover grew to £9.1bn from £7.5bn in 2008/09.

Within his new role, Dr Williams will oversee Australia's Square Kilometer Array facilities, one of the world's largest scientific projects currently under development.

Welcome Dr. Williams, and we look forward to you helping to grow Australia's space capabilities.

Australia's role in Curiosity's Mars Landing

I've hesitated to write a blog post on Australia's role in NASA's Curiosity Mars mission - not because it isn't a great topic or story, but because there has been such substantial coverage of the topic in the mainstream Australian media.

In light of the successful touchdown on Mars, I just couldn't resist putting a few notes down about it for those who like to follow the blog.

First and foremost, the NASA Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla (just outside of Canberra) was the prime communications receiving station on earth to communicate with the Curiosity Spacecraft for the decent and landing today. As a back up, both the Parkes telescope and New Norica facility in Western Australia were also used as backup communications links. A large crowd gathered at  Tidbinbilla today to watch the even, with some even arriving at 9am to get the best seats in the house!

Our second major involvement is that the Curiosity rover has touched down within the Gale Crater is in fact named after Walter Frederick Gale, a Sydney banker and astronomer who undertook many observations of Mars, and subsequently had the Gale crater named in his honour. An interesting article about Walter Gale can be found here on the Cosmos website by Jonathan Nally.

Thirdly is Marion Anderson's involvement - a geologist from Monash university - who was involved in the landing site selection for the Curiosity mission. Alan Kerlin has an interesting interview with Marion over here.

Finally, Dr Penny King - a geologist from the Australian National University will be helping to control the scientific instruments of the Curiosity mission from NASA's JPL. No doubt, Dr King will be very excited that  Curiosity has successfully landed on Mars - as the science is just about to begin!

Congratulations to all those involved in the mission - particularly those at NASA who have worked so long and hard for this moment. I look forward to hearing of the many discoveries that will be made through such an important mission.