Lisa Harvey-Smith is a British-Australian astrophysicist, author, television presenter and Professor of Practice at the University of New South Wales. Harvey-Smith served as Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador from 2018-2024, during which time she advised the Australian Government on gender equity in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and led national programs to advance equity and inclusion in STEM. Her research interests include the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, supernova remnants, the interstellar medium, massive star formation, astrophysical masers and gender equity in STEM. For almost a decade she was a research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), including several years as the Project Scientist for the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and later Project Scientist for the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Telescope. She has published seven non-fiction books about astronomy and physics for adults and children, including the multi-award-winning ‘Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Bedtime’, which won the Singapore Book Awards best education title and was shortlisted for many other awards.
Early life and education Lisa Harvey-Smith was born in Harlow, in Essex. She attended Finchingfield Primary School, where her mother Elizabeth Davies was the headteacher. She was home educated between 1991 and 1996. She later attended Braintree College. Harvey-Smith obtained a Master of Physics degree with Honours, majoring in astronomy and astrophysics, from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2002. She was awarded her PhD in Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory from the University of Manchester in 2005 supervised by R. J. Cohen.
Professional career
Gender equity As the Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador from 2018-24, Harvey-Smith spearheaded the Australian Government's effort to remove barriers to girls’ and women’s participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields on a national scale. She was selected in 2018 for the role and re-appointed in September 2020 and again in 2023. From 2012 to 2015 Harvey-Smith was Chair of the Women in Astronomy Chapter of the Astronomical Society of Australia. During that time she presided over the launch of a national gender equity scheme for astronomers in Australia called The Pleiades Awards.
Astrophysics Harvey-Smith is an astrophysicist with more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific papers on topics including the birth and death of stars, cosmic magnetic fields and supermassive black holes. She is a Professor of Practice in Science Communication at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and in 2018 was appointed as an adjunct professor in the School of Computing, Engineering, and Maths at Western Sydney University. In August 2012 Harvey-Smith was appointed Project Scientist at CSIRO for the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope (ASKAP) telescope. Prior to this, whilst the SKA Project Scientist at CSIRO, she played a pivotal role in Australia and New Zealand’s bid to host the SKA. In May 2012 it was announced that the SKA would be constructed in both Australia and Southern Africa. In her time at CSIRO she also led the development of the ASKAP Early Science Program, which began in 2015. Following this role, Harvey-Smith was appointed Research Group Leader at CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facilities Science Program. From 2009 until 2011, Harvey-Smith was Chair of the Australia Telescope National Facility's Telescope Time Assignment Committee. Harvey-Smith was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Sydney from 2007 to 2009, where she published work on the role of magnetic fields in the shaping of supernova remnant, and a study of large-scale magnetic fields in galactic regions of ionised gas surrounding massive star clusters. Harvey-Smith worked as a support scientist at the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) in Europe in the Netherlands, where she carried out real-time testing of the European VLBI Network telescope array, was responsible for science data quality control and took part in some of the first global real-time electronic VLBI experiments. During this time she worked on polarimetric studies of galactic masers and their relation to magnetic fields in regions of massive star-formation.
Professional, board and committee memberships Harvey-Smith is a member of Chief Executive Women, the National Science and Technology Centre (Questacon) Advisory Council, the Australian Space Agency Advisory Board, the International Astronomical Union, and the Astronomical Society of Australia.
Books Harvey-Smith has published several books on astronomy for adults and children, which are published in English, German, Simplified Chinese and Korean. They include:
Quarks, Sparks and Quantum Mysteries, illustrated by Aidan Ryan (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2025). Universal Guide to the Night Sky, illustrated by Sophie Beer (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2023). Aliens and Other Worlds (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2021). Little Book, BIG Universe (an Australia Reads special edition published by Thames and Hudson Australia, 2021). The Secret Life of Stars (Thames and Hudson, 2020), which was longlisted for Booktopia Australia’s Favourite Book Award 2020. Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Bedtime (Melbourne University Publishing 2019, published internationally under the title Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone by World Scientific Publishing, 2020) won the Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal for Children's Illustrated Non-Fiction 2022 and the Singapore Book Awards best education title and was a finalist in the people’s choice category, 2021. It was a finalist in the Royal Society's Young People's Book Prize 2022, Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2021, the longlist for Children’s Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award 2020; and the longlist for Booktopia Australia’s Favourite Book Award 2019. When Galaxies Collide (Melbourne University Publishing, 2018). Harvey-Smith is a chapter author in Patrick Moore's Yearbook of Astronomy 2016, published by Pan MacMillan. She also wrote the foreword for The Best Australian Science Writing published in 2019 and is a chapter author in Australia’s Nobel Laureates Volume III, published in 2021 by One Mandate Group.
Media
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
