Prof Tamara Davis – International leader in astrophysics
04 July 2016
Celebrating 10 years of the Australian L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowships
Prof Tamara Davis - University of Queensland
For Women in Science Fellow 2009
Tamara Davis is an astrophysicist searching for the elusive “dark energy” that’s accelerating the universe. She has observed time running more slowly in distant supernovae (exploding stars), and is measuring how black holes, one of the most fascinating phenomena of space, have evolved over the last 12 billion years. Tamara also helped create one of the largest maps of the distribution of galaxies in the universe, which confirmed its expansion is accelerating — thus confirming the discovery that won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2011.
Receiving the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science fellowship in 2009 gave Tamara visibility and recognition within the astrophysics community. Since then Tamara has been promoted to Professor of Physics, only the second time a woman has reached this level in more than a one hunded year history of University of Queensland.
Among the many awards and achievements that highlight Tamara’s phenomenal work are her recognition by the leading science journal Nature and being ranked fourth in Physics World’s top ten breakthroughs of 2011.
Tamara’s passion for gender equity, especially in the fields of physics and mathematics where the representation of women is low, inspires her extensive public outreach efforts to promote science and improve visibility of female physicists.
