Dr Matthew Whiting

https://people.csiro.au/w/m/matthew-whiting

Biography

Matthew is a Principal Research Scientist within the ATNF Science program at Space & Astronomy, and as Head of Data Operations for ASKAP plays a leading role in the operations of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the further development of ASKAP's processing software.

Matthew is an astronomer by training, having completed a PhD at University of Melbourne in astrophysics, studying the optical and infrared emission mechanisms of radio-loud quasars. Matthew developed a strong background in observational astronomy, particularly with optical and infrared telescopes both in Australia (principally at Siding Spring Observatory) and overseas (culminating in a 2-month stint at Gemini South helping to commission the first mid-infrared instrument there).

Matthew continued his research at the post-doctoral level as a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow at the University of NSW. His research continued to examine quasars, as well as searches for cool neutral gas that can be seen in absorption towards these bright background objects.

Matthew then moved to CSIRO, where he worked as a postdoc on source-finding software, optimised for searching three-dimensional astronomical spectral-line survey data. This work led to the very successful Duchamp source finder.

The advent of the ASKAP project saw Matthew move into the ASKAP computing team, with the roles of developing the source-extraction software, as well as designing and running science-grade simulations of ASKAP observations. Matthew led the interactions between the computing team and the various ASKAP Survey Science teams.

More recently, Matthew has led the development of the ASKAP processing pipeline - a scripted workflow that runs on the Pawsey supercomputer Galaxy to process the large ASKAP observations and create science-ready data products that are publicly available on the CASDA archive.

Matthew now makes use of the ASKAP pipeline to ensure observations made with ASKAP are processed promptly, and that the resulting data products (images, catalogues) are made available to the community on CASDA. Matthew has further supported ASKAP science by leading proposals for additional supercomputing time for post-processing - further work needed to deliver specific scientific results using the ASKAP data. This effort has led to over 41 million core-hours of time for the ASKAP science community over the last eight years.

Fields of Research

Current

Current Roles

Team Leader, ATNF Science, S&A
Leads a team within the astrophysics and science operations program of Space & Astronomy
Head, ASKAP Data Operations
Leads the processing of ASKAP observational data to provide science ready data products to the community

Academic Qualifications

2002

Ph.D
U. Melbourne
1996

B.Sc (Hons)
U. Adelaide
1995

B.Sc
U. Adelaide

Professional Experiences

2021-2025

Team Leader, ATNF Science, Space & Astronomy
CSIRO
2017-2021

Group Leader, ATNF Science, CASS / S&A
CSIRO
2017-2017

Team Leader, ATNF Science, CASS
CSIRO
2016-2016

Project Leader (acting), CASDA
CSIRO
2015-2016

Team Leader, Software & Computing, CASS
CSIRO

Achievements and Awards

2022-2022

Peter McGregor Prize for Innovation in Instrumentation (joint award to ASKAP team)
Astronomical Society of Australia
2018-2018

DNFC Collaboration Award
CSIRO
2016-2016

Performance Cash Reward
CSIRO
2015-2015

Chairman's Medal (joint award to ASKAP team)
CSIRO
2002-2005

NewSouth Global Postdoctoral Fellow
UNSW
1997-2000

Russell & Mab Grimwade Scholarship
U. Melbourne
1996-1996

University Medal
U. Adelaide
1995-1995

Bragg Medal
Australian Institute of Physics / U.Adelaide

Grants

2026-2026

Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Setonix; 12,400kSU (Lead CI)
2025-2025

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Setonix; 13,700kSU (Lead CI)
2024-2024

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Setonix ; 10,300kSU (Lead CI)
2023-2023

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Setonix ; 7,300kSU (Lead CI)
2022-2022

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Magnus/Setonix; 3,250kSU + 1,750kSU (Lead CI)
2021-2021

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Magnus; 1,360kSU (Lead CI)
2020-2020

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Magnus; 1,140kSU (Lead CI)
2019-2019

NCMAS + Pawsey Partners Supercomputing allocation; Magnus; 1,180kSU (Lead CI)
2018-2018

NCMAS Supercomputing allocation; Magnus; 1,072kSU (Lead CI)

Community and Corporate Citizenship

2017-2025

Member: Pawsey Partner Time Allocation Committee
2020-2022

Member: NCI Australian Leadership Computing Grant allocation committee
2017-2018

Member: AAL Astronomy e-Research Advisory Committee (AeRAC)
2014-2015

Member: AAL Astronomy Supercomputing Time Assignment Committee (ASTAC)
2013-2017

Chair: Astronomy/astrophysics sessions at CSIRO Computation & Simulation Sciences and C3DIS meetings