Professor Michael Murphy
- Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology
- School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies (SoSCET)
- Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
- Department of Physics and Astronomy
Biography
Professor Michael Murphy is an observational astrophysicist at Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. His research examines various aspects of cosmology, the universe’s properties and evolution on the largest possible scales.
Professor Murphy specialises in the spectra of quasars, particularly the absorption lines imprinted on them by very distant galaxies between the quasars and Earth. Using this technique, he has made significant contributions to the field of measuring the fundamental constants of nature in the distant, early universe.
Together with collaborators at UNSW, Professor Murphy won the 2012 Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. From 2003 to 2005 Professor Murphy was a research fellow at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge and took up a PPARC Advanced Fellowship (now known as an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship) from 2005 to mid-2007. He also held an Australian Research Council QEII Fellowship at Swinburne from 2008 to 2012. Professor Murphy is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Astronomical Society of Australia (FASA) and a member of the International Astronomical Union.
Research interests
Astronomy; Galaxies and quasars in the distant Universe; Cosmological variations in the laws of nature; The large-scale structure of the Universe; The evolution of the Universe; Precision spectroscopy in astronomy
Fields of Research
- Cosmology And Extragalactic Astronomy - 510103
- Galactic Astronomy - 510104
- Space Instrumentation - 510906
- Astronomical Instrumentation - 510102
Further information
Publications
Also published as: Murphy, M.; Murphy, M. T.; Murphy, Michael T.
This publication listing is provided by Swinburne Research Bank. If you are the owner of this profile, you can update your publications using our online form.
Recent media
- 2013-07-05: Newfound hungry galaxy is gobbling up its surroundings - Business Insider Australia
- 2010-11-06: The sky has a new limit - Sydney Morning Herald
- 2010-09-08: Laws of physics may change across the universe - New Scientist
- 2010-06-02: Distant gas blob threatens to shake natures constants - New Scientist
- 2009-08-22: The Physical Laws of the Universe - ABC Science Show
- 2009-03-26: Earth hour gets closer to global target - Sydney Morning Herald
- 2008-10-03: Clocking the speed of stars - Scienceline
- 2008-09-12: Bright lights and the biggest of bangs all in a galaxy far far away - The Age
- 2008-09-08: Laser precision puts universe within reach - ABC Online
- 2008-06-20: Changing physical constant may be constant after all - New Scientist
- 2008-06-20: Experimenting in a galaxy far far away - ABC Online
- 2008-06-19: Are the laws of physics the same throughout the universe? - Symmetry Magazine