Scott Croom

Professor Scott Croom is a Professor in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, working within the Sydney Institute for Astronomy. An observational astrophysicist, he obtained his PhD from Durham University in 1998. After a postdoctoral position at Imperial College London, he worked at the Anglo-Australian Observatory from 2000 to 2006 before joining the University of Sydney. He was previously an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow.

Croom's academic interests center on cosmology, the formation and evolution of galaxies, quasars, active galactic nuclei, and the use of large spectroscopic surveys to probe these phenomena. He led the 2-degree Field QSO Redshift Survey (2QZ), which measured redshifts for over 23,000 quasars, enabling studies of large-scale structure, AGN physics, and cosmological parameters. Subsequent leadership roles included the 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey (2SLAQ, 2005), the WiggleZ survey measuring dark energy via baryon acoustic oscillations, and the SAMI Galaxy Survey (2013–2016), where he served as principal investigator. The SAMI survey utilized the Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph to observe 3,400 galaxies, investigating environmental transformations, angular momentum distribution, and gas inflows/outflows in galaxy evolution. His recent research explores galaxy kinematic morphology, stellar population ages, and chaotic dynamics in aging galaxies. Notable publications include Croom et al. (2004) "The 2dF QSO Redshift survey..." in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and Croom et al. (2021) "The SAMI Galaxy Survey: the third and final data release" in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. Croom received the inaugural Peter McGregor Prize in 2016 from the Astronomical Society of Australia for SAMI development. His work has profoundly influenced the field through public data releases that continue to drive discoveries in galaxy evolution and cosmology.

Professional Email: scott.croom@sydney.edu.au