Rate My Professor Elaine Sadler

Professor Elaine Sadler is Professor of Astrophysics in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney and serves as ATNF Chief Scientist at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science. She obtained her BSc in physics from the University of Queensland and her PhD in astronomy from the Australian National University in 1983 under the supervision of Ken Freeman. Following postdoctoral research positions in the United States and Germany, she joined the Anglo-Australian Observatory before moving to the University of Sydney in 1993 as an ARC Australian Research Fellow. She was promoted to full Professor in 2003. Throughout her career, she has held numerous leadership positions, including Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) from 2014 to 2018, Founding Director of Astronomy Australia Limited from 2007 to 2009, President of the Astronomical Society of Australia in the mid-1990s—the youngest and first female president—President of International Astronomical Union Division VIII (Galaxies and the Universe) from 2009 to 2012, and Chair of the National Committee for Astronomy from 2010 to 2012. She also served as Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science from 2018 to 2022.

Professor Sadler's research interests encompass extragalactic astronomy and galaxy evolution. She investigates the co-evolution of massive galaxies and their central supermassive black holes, the demographics, triggers, and lifetimes of low-luminosity radio galaxies, neutral hydrogen in and around early-type galaxies, searches for high-redshift galaxies, radio source populations at 20-100 GHz, and supernovae associated with gamma-ray bursts. Key contributions include the discovery that most bright elliptical galaxies host weak central radio sources powered by black-hole accretion and the first measurement of the cosmic evolution of low-power radio galaxies over the past 5-6 billion years, as well as identifying the optical counterpart of gamma-ray burst GRB 980425 as a supernova forming a black hole. She is co-Principal Investigator of the ASKAP-WALLABY survey, which images neutral hydrogen in 500,000 galaxies, co-leader of the FLASH project using the Australian SKA Pathfinder to study neutral hydrogen evolution over cosmic time, and a Chief Investigator in ASTRO 3D. Her honors include appointment as Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2019 for distinguished service to science as an astrophysicist and to gender equity in astronomy, and election as Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2010. She has promoted gender equality through mentoring, policy development, and leading CAASTRO's Gender Action Committee, earning the 2017 Gold Pleiades Award for advancing women's careers in astronomy.