Most people start out in astronomy looking up at the stars as a child. That was not me.
I grew up moving all over the world. My father was in DFAT (Australian Foreign Service) and we lived in Madrid, Spain, Bangkok, Thailand, and NYC, USA, with interludes of suburban Canberra, Australia, all before I had graduated high school. I graduated in NY from UNIS, after undertaking the International Baccalaureate program. I then moved back to Australia for University.
Every kid goes through a dinosaur phase. Mine just happened to last until my mid 20's. For my first degree I undertook a Bachelor of Science at the University of Queensland (UQ). There I met Dr. Steve Salisbury and helped the UQ Dinosaur Lab dig up fossil dinosaurs, fish, and crocodiles in Western Queensland. Life then hit, so I went and sold computers and mobile phones for a couple of years, ending up as a science teacher at Elonera Montesori School. This is where my life as an astronomer/planetary scientist starts.
In order to progress as a teacher, I needed to complete some extra training in a field other than biology. I couldn't bring myself to do chemistry, and pure physics didn't interest me, then I found Swinburne Astronomy Online. I have always enjoyed Science Fiction, so I thought I'd give it a go. I took one course and found it fun, so I took a couple more. A year later I found that I had upgraded to a Masters and was enjoying every minute. In the meantime, I moved to Boulder, Colorado, and started going to colloquia at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). Through discussions and on my own initiative, in 2017 I started my remote PhD with Prof. Jonti Horner from the Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) and Dr. David Nesvorny from SwRI. In 2021, I completed my PhD with a focus on Small Solar system body taxonomy and dynamics.
Nowadays, I am in Toowoomba, Queensland where I work as an astronomy and science skills lecturer for UniSQ. When I'm not teaching, I enjoy internet spaceships (Eve Online), board games and sci-fi in all their forms.
Some Links:
Come join me play internet spaceships - Eve Online recruitment .
Lets shoot some WWII ships - World of Warships Referral
A cozy non-violent mmo that's just starting out- Palia referal
Transfer Money internationally - Wise