Fred Watson - Science Talk 2008

Introduction

Dr Fred Watson was born and raised in Bradford in Northern England. He studied at St.Andrews University in Edinburgh and trained in astronomy at the royal Greenwich Observatory. He has been Astronomer-in-Charge at Australia’s premier optical telescope facility, the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), since 1995. Fred completed his PhD in 1997 and has pioneered work on optical fibres used in today’s optical telescopes. He has received a number of awards for science communication including the Australian Museum Eureka prize in 2006 for promoting understanding of science.

Fred has had a lifelong interest in the stars and this has led him on a long and entertaining scientific career. Fred has weekly astronomy segments on ABC radio. He also has frequent ‘slots’ with other ABC presenters. Fred is also an accomplished author and has published Stargazer, the life and times of the telescope and Why is Uranus upside down?

In this resource Fred talks about the past, present and future of telescopes. He provides personal anecdotes and amusing stories from his career and encourages students to consider astronomy as a career choice.