Hello and welcome to the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash University.
My name is Michael Morgan and I coordinate the MSc coursework
programs here at Monash School of Physics and Astronomy.
Today I want to talk to you briefly about one of our programs,
the Master of Science with a specialism in Astrophysics.
You'll notice on this slide there's a contact email address and a website,
and I'd invite you to email me if you have any inquiries
after viewing this video. So let me begin by posing a question.
Why would you choose this course? Well,
the Master of Science in Astrophysics is a specialist two year degree
and provides high level training and the research skills necessary to navigate a
complex and rapidly changing technological world.
The next question is, well, why would you choose Monash University? Well,
one aspect of a course such as this is the research
intensity of the university. So when you join Monash,
you'll have access to world class researchers and facilities,
and I'll touch on these shortly.
You'll also be part of an outstanding research culture,
which will support your career aspirations.
The School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash is ranked in the top hundred in
the world,
and this is based on all major academic rankings such as the academic ranking of
world universities, QS and the Times.
In the most recent audit of research excellence,
which is called ERA or Excellence in Research for Australia,
the last audit of which was in 2018,
the school received the highest rating of five,
well above world standard for all its research programs,
an overall rating of five,
and the highest rating for the impact of our research.
This places the School of Physics and Astronomy at Monash among a very small
number of universities in Australia that exhibit the kind of research intensity
and research impact.
And this is good for you because you'll be joining the School that has access to
these facilities and people and will promote your research aspirations.
Let me talk briefly about the entry requirements.
There are two ways in which to come into the program. Remember,
this is a two year coursework program, 50% of which is devoted to research.
You could enter in the first year,
which we'll call level one and complete this over two years,
full-time or four years part-time.
To enter into the MSc at level one,
you need an undergraduate degree equivalent to an Australian undergraduate
degree with a Major in Astronomy or Astrophysics or a related discipline.
And you also need at least 65% average or qualifications and experience that the
Faculty of Science deems equivalent.
We particularly look for a 65% or better in your third year subjects in
astronomy, astrophysics, physics, and mathematics.
Now you can enter directly into the second year if you've completed a four
year Australian Honors Degree or equivalent.
If you enter into the second year at level two,
this will take you one further year to complete your Master's
full-time or two years part-time. Again,
we look for a 65% average or better or qualifications and experience that the
Faculty of Science considers to be equivalent.
If you're an international student,
you also have to fulfill English language requirements.
Details of these English language requirements can be found by searching
'English language requirements at Monash University.'
The course structure,
let me briefly outline what you would do if you entered the two year
program. In the first year,
you'll undertake coursework, in fact,
six coursework units. So in the first semester, or the first half of year one,
you'll do coursework units worth 12 points called
ASP4020, and this is Astrophysics Coursework A,
then once you've completed those,
you'll undertake ASP4021, Astrophysics Coursework B,
another 12 points.
I'll talk a little bit more about what constitutes this coursework in a minute.
At the second half of year one in semester two,
you devote your entire energy to an astrophysics research project,
which is worth 24 points. Now I need to emphasise,
although you'll be devoting all your time in the second semester to the research
project,
you'll actually start your research project right at the beginning of the year.
So you'll be assigned a supervisor or supervisors and a research project,
and you'll continue that for the entire year,
even while you're doing your coursework.
.
In the second year, the pattern repeats. So in semester one,
you undertake an additional set of coursework units called
ASP5020 and 50 1 and these are advanced
astrophysics coursework units that build on the coursework you've done in the
first year.
Unlike many Master's programs which allow you to do
coursework in the second year, but it's equivalent essentially as first year,
we actually build on the first year so that you do advanced coursework in the
second year. This gives you a lot more depth and breadth in terms of
the intellectual engagement you have with coursework.
Again, in the second half of year two,
you devote your entire energy to the research project ASP5000.
This is the advanced research project which will ultimately lead to the MSc
thesis that you'll write. Again,
the coursework the research project, I should say,
is carried out over the entire year. In fact,
you'll start your project in the very first year and the project will continue
throughout the first year and the second year.
So you'll devote essentially two years to this project.
This will allow you to produce material of a sufficiently high standard that it
is publishable in international journals, which is what we aspire to,
and our students attain.
The coursework units. In year one,
you choose six coursework units and the research project,
which leads to an interim report, which will be assessed by two examiners.
The six coursework units are chosen from a wide range of options.
So for example: computational astrophysics,
advanced observational astronomy, stellar astrophysics one,
stellar astrophysics two, which looks at the chemical evolution of the elements,
general activity and cosmology,
data analysis and machine learning dynamics of exoplanets and so forth.
So you choose six of these and that will complete your coursework in the first
year. And as I said, this will be finished by the semester one.
And then in semester two,
you'll continue on with your research that you started in semester one,
leading to an interim report,
which will be examined.
In year two you choose
six advanced coursework units and the research project,
which leads to the MSc thesis.
These research advanced coursework units build on year one. So for example,
you'll have high energy astrophysics, radiation astrophysics,
advanced generalativity, order of magnitude astrophysics,
magneto-hydrodynamics, special topics in astrophysics and so forth.
So you can see that you will be building on what you've done in first year
at a very advanced level in second year.
And this MSc program is competitive with the best MSc programs
in Europe, Asia, and North America.
Now, a very important motivation for coming to Monash is the
facilities that we provide. So we have world-class facilities.
Let me just mention a few and show you a few pictures of what we have to offer.
So it depends on what research project you do as to what facilities you'll need.
If you do a project that involves observational astronomy,
then you may be accessing observational you may be accessing radio or
optical telescopes or space-based telescopes of various other
kinds, for example, gravitational wave astronomy.
So we have a number of Centres of Excellence.
These are called Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence in Future Low
Energy Electronics Technologies,
a Center of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery,
building on the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015, which we were part of
that important discovery, which led to the Nobel Prize in 2017.
We're also part of the ARC Center of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in
Three Dimensions, Astro 3D. We also are part of a number of other centers.
So I mentioned, for example,
the Monash Warwick Alliance in High Energy Particle Physics. Now,
this may be relevant to those of you that want to choose a project at the
intersection between astrophysics and particle physics,
such as astro particle physics.
There are many other facilities that we have access to.
The Australian Ssynchrotron is located opposite Monash.
There are access to other synchrotron facilities in Japan, Europe,
and the United States.
If you're doing a project involving experimental particle physics you'll have
access to the Large Hadron Collider and so forth.
Of particular interest to those doing astrophysics is the access
to LIGO, the gravitational wave observatory in the United States.
We also have access to Virgo and KRA,
which are gravitational wave observatories in Europe and in Japan.
We also have access to the European Southern Observatory in Chile,
Alma, which is another
millimeter wave observatory in Chile,
the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics and many more
world-class facilities.
So here's just a couple of slides on the left.
We see the New Horizons Research Center,
which houses the School's research facilities.
It's also going to be your home for two years because all the Master's students
are co-located in this building.
On the right we have what is called the GOTO observatory.
This is a set of telescopes in the Canary Islands,
which are remotely controlled here at Monash.
And this is being built jointly by Monash University and the University of
Warwick and GOTO looks for gravitational optical transients
associated with gravitational waves,
Probably more important than the facilities are the people.
And we're particularly proud of the very large range of excellent researchers.
We have research fellows, post-doctoral fellows,
ongoing staff at the professorial level.
We have a very large number of Australian Research Council Future Fellows,
the largest of any university in the country.
We have ARC Laureate Fellows, DECRA fellows, and so forth.
And so these world-class researchers are the people who will be your supervisor
or supervisors for the time that you are undertaking your research project.
So this combination of excellent world-class research
facilities and highly talented and creative researchers means that you're
able to do research which is genuinely cutting edge.
And one measure of that will be your capacity to produce
publications arising from your MSc thesis
that can be published in international journals.
And that's exactly what we aspire you to do and we help you to do that.
Let me briefly mention career outcomes because this is obviously of interest to
those of you that perhaps are looking at a Master's just to broaden your
experience, but are not necessarily wanting to go beyond that to pursue a full
research career. So the career outcomes will be based on the following.
So the skills that you acquire in the MSc program are indeed highly sought after
by employers and they're applicable to a wide range of research careers.
So our graduates use their knowledge in managing astronomical observatories in
medical imaging, climate modeling, scientific instrumentation,
research and development, big data analytics and visualization,
the energy sector, science, communication and media.
And even as far afield as banking, finance, and patent law.
Let me just return to one of these, namely big data analytics and visualisation.
One of the challenges in all domains of society,
whether it be in astrophysics or physics or engineering or medicine or biology
or economics or law,
is the huge amount of data that
you have to deal with.
And so one of the subjects that we actually teach is data analysis and machine
learning,
which allows you to deal with and visualize and extract useful information
and patterns from big data.
And this big data analytics is sought after,
our graduates are sought after with these skills and find these skills put to
use in a very wide range of industries,
ranging from environmental protection to, as I said, banking,
to financial modeling, consulting.
There are very wide range of areas in which these skills involving the
analysis of big data and machine learning are highly sought after.
So as a consequence of these skills,
our graduates find employment in a wide range of industries in scientific
institutes, including universities, in hospitals,
government organisations such as the Bureau of Meteorology or the Australian
Nuclear Science and Technology Organization,
or the Australian Synchotron or other government organisations in science,
communication and media, or indeed in startup companies,
just to name but a few.
And of course a Master's degree from Monash also equips you to proceed to
research doctorate or a PhD.
So for further information,
there's information here that you can access through our handbook, our YouTube,
which includes a tour of the research facilities here in the School of
Physics and Astronomy, our website and Facebook.
So I strongly encourage you to have a look at these
websites, handbooks, YouTube, and so forth. And also, of course,
the very first slide had my email address.
So please feel free to contact me should you have further questions.
So thank you for giving your time to this video.
I hope we'll see you here at Monash at some point in the future. Thank you.