Matt Dodds is an Amateur Astronomer and the Education Officer for the Sydney University node of ASTRO 3D. He has a keen passion for Astronomy and Science Education and connecting people with the night sky. Having spent the better part of the last decade as a High School Science Teacher, Matt excels at inspiring students to follow their passions, ask questions and pursue their goals in Science related fields. Matt can often be found travelling around the country, sharing the eyepiece of his telescopes with school groups or the general public. He also presents various workshops to teacher and student groups such as the basics of spectroscopy, the scale of the solar system and how to build a telescope. One his long drives around Australia he loves listening to Astronomy podcasts such as "Space Nuts", "Cosmic Vertigo" and the "Exocast". He on both Instagram and Twitter @ScienceWithMat.

Fred Watson says he's spent so many years working in large telescope domes that he has started to look like one. He is Australia’s first Astronomer-at-Large in the Commonwealth Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources, having worked at both of Britain’s Royal Observatories before joining the Australian Astronomical Observatory as Astronomer-in-Charge in 1995.

Recognised internationally for helping to pioneer the use of fibre optics in astronomy during the 1980s, Fred is best known today for his award-winning radio and TV broadcasts, books, music, dark-sky advocacy and co-hosting the Space Nuts podcast.

Fred has adjunct professorships at Macquarie University and the Universities of New South Wales, Sydney, Western Sydney, Southern Queensland and Wollongong. In 2003,he received the David Allen Prize for communicating astronomy to the public, and in 2006 was the winner of the Australian Government Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. In January 2010, Fred was made a Member of the Order of Australia for service to astronomy, particularly the promotion and popularisation of space science through public outreach.

Brian Schmidt AC FAA FRS FTSE is Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the Australian National University. For his work on the accelerating universe, Brian Schmidt was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Adam Riess and Saul Perlmutter. Schmidt has worked across many areas of Astronomy including supernovae, gamma ray Bursts, gravitational wave transients, exo-planets, and metal poor stars. Receiving his PhD from Harvard University in 1993, Schmidt joined the staff of the Australian National University in 1995. He served as the 12th Vice Chancellor and President of the Australia National University from 2016-2023. https://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~brian/

Nuria Lorente is joint Head of Research Data & Software at AAO (Australian Astronomical Optics), Macquarie University. With a wide range of experience in algorithms and software for optical and radio astronomy, Nuria has a particular interest in object and path finding, data simulation and modelling, intelligent instrument monitoring, and fostering collaborative engineering and research communities. Her project portfolio includes contributions to the ALMA telescope’s Observation Preparation, Control, and Data Model systems, data simulations for the James Webb Space Telescope, and leading the Australian data pipelines project for the ESO VLT telescope. More broadly, Nuria is actively involved in the international astronomy software and data engineering community. Her career has taken her around the globe, including roles at CSIRO, as well as in the UK, Germany, and the USA. Nuria advocates for collaborative and inclusive teams, believing that the best science emerges from diversity of thought, gender, and background. She is committed to shaping organisations to support these values and advance scientific discovery.

Dr. Kathryn Grasha is an observational astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University. Her research sheds light on the physics that governs how galaxies transform and evolve by tracing how oxygen atoms we breathe and the carbon we are made of formed across cosmic time. Dr. Grasha earned her PhD in 2018 from the University of Massachusetts and is now an ARC DECRA Fellow and ASTRO 3D Fellow at ANU.