Emeritus Professor Peter Dyson
Peter Dyson was born in Coburg in 1942. He attended Coburg Primary School and then Coburg High School from 1954 – 60. In his final year he was Deputy Head Prefect, Captain of the cricket and baseball teams, and Cadet Under-Officer in the Air Training Corps. The excellent teachers and learning environment at the school stimulated his interest in maths and physics and after matriculating he enrolled in a science degree at Melbourne University with the intention of becoming a maths and physics teacher. Obtaining a BSc (Honours) degree in physics with first class honours opened up opportunities to pursue scientific research, particularly in the space program which was then emerging as a new field of exploration and research. He embarked on a PhD project which involved setting up a facility at Point Cook to track several US and Canadian satellites as they orbited over Australia and obtain measurements of the unexplored outer ionosphere surrounding the earth. This was one of the first PhD’s in Australia using satellite instruments.
In 1966 Peter married Diane Clark a CHS student from 1956 -61.
In 1967, on the strength of his PhD thesis, he was awarded a two-year US National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council Research Associateship to undertake a program of research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, DC. The research studied processes in the outer ionosphere, particularly unexpected turbulence which needed to be understood for reliable radio communication with satellites and the development of satellite navigational systems such as GPS.
In 1969 Peter was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship by the Australian Government which he took up at La Trobe University in the newly formed Theoretical and Space Physics Group. In 1971 he was appointed a Senior Lecturer and was eventually appointed to a personal chair in physics in 1993. Throughout his career he continued working with the US space program with regular visits to NASA facilities, but with very little opportunity to build satellite instruments in Australia he focussed the interests of his research group on the development of ground-based radio and optical instruments to study the impact of space weather on the ionosphere and atmosphere. The prime focus was on the effects of energy deposited at high latitudes during solar and magnetic storms which produces aurora and related phenomena, and the subsequent transport of energy to the lower latitudes of the Australian continent. Optical instruments were deployed at Australian Antarctic stations and recently at South Pole. Over-the-horizon radars were installed in Australia and New Zealand as part of an international network which provides continuous simultaneous observations of both polar regions and also conducts special campaigns synchronised with observations by orbiting satellites. Developments in radio propagation theory were also made to support the radar operations and techniques developed have been used in the Jindalee Over-the-horizon Radar Network that surveys Australia’s extensive northern coast.
International cooperation and collaboration is essential for the study of global phenomena such as the impacts of space weather and throughout his career Peter took on many different leadership roles on international scientific committees and programs.
In 1998 he received a NASA Group Achievement Award with other leaders of the international auroral radar network and, in 2003 he received the Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal for Scientific Research in Physical Sciences. During 2007 he was appointed Director, Research and Innovation at La Trobe and upon retirement he was appointed an Emeritus Professor in 2008.
This link will show you one of the projects Pro. Dyson has worked on
In 1966 Peter married Diane Clark a CHS student from 1956 -61.
In 1967, on the strength of his PhD thesis, he was awarded a two-year US National Academy of Sciences – National Research Council Research Associateship to undertake a program of research at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington, DC. The research studied processes in the outer ionosphere, particularly unexpected turbulence which needed to be understood for reliable radio communication with satellites and the development of satellite navigational systems such as GPS.
In 1969 Peter was awarded a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship by the Australian Government which he took up at La Trobe University in the newly formed Theoretical and Space Physics Group. In 1971 he was appointed a Senior Lecturer and was eventually appointed to a personal chair in physics in 1993. Throughout his career he continued working with the US space program with regular visits to NASA facilities, but with very little opportunity to build satellite instruments in Australia he focussed the interests of his research group on the development of ground-based radio and optical instruments to study the impact of space weather on the ionosphere and atmosphere. The prime focus was on the effects of energy deposited at high latitudes during solar and magnetic storms which produces aurora and related phenomena, and the subsequent transport of energy to the lower latitudes of the Australian continent. Optical instruments were deployed at Australian Antarctic stations and recently at South Pole. Over-the-horizon radars were installed in Australia and New Zealand as part of an international network which provides continuous simultaneous observations of both polar regions and also conducts special campaigns synchronised with observations by orbiting satellites. Developments in radio propagation theory were also made to support the radar operations and techniques developed have been used in the Jindalee Over-the-horizon Radar Network that surveys Australia’s extensive northern coast.
International cooperation and collaboration is essential for the study of global phenomena such as the impacts of space weather and throughout his career Peter took on many different leadership roles on international scientific committees and programs.
In 1998 he received a NASA Group Achievement Award with other leaders of the international auroral radar network and, in 2003 he received the Royal Society of Victoria Research Medal for Scientific Research in Physical Sciences. During 2007 he was appointed Director, Research and Innovation at La Trobe and upon retirement he was appointed an Emeritus Professor in 2008.
This link will show you one of the projects Pro. Dyson has worked on