Lisa Harvey-Smith

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.