Dr Roberta Anne 'Bobbie' Vaile (25 June 1959 – 13 November 1996) was an Australian astrophysicist and senior

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the Faculty of Business and Technology at the

University of Western Sydney, Macarthur Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network ...

. She was involved with Project Phoenix (a

SETI The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...

experiment) and influential in the establishment of the SETI Australia Centre, created at the university in 1995. She died following a seven-year battle with an inoperable brain

tumour A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

. Bobbie was born in

Junee, New South Wales Junee () is a medium-sized town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. The town's prosperity and mixed services economy is based on a combination of agriculture, rail transport, light industry and government services, and in par ...

. She attended the University of Newcastle, where she received her

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

She earned her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

with a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

entitled "The

Corona Australis Corona Australis is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its Latin name means "southern crown", and it is the southern counterpart of Corona Borealis, the northern crown. It is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-centu ...

Complex" in 1989. Bobbie was awarded the Australian Science Communicators' "Unsung Hero of Australian Science" award in 1995 for her work in developing easy and friendly methods of teaching science. Other published papers include: -

Seth Shostak Seth Shostak (born July 20, 1943) is an American astronomer and author, and is currently the senior astronomer for the SETI Institute. Shostak hosts SETI's weekly radio show/podcast ''Big Picture Science'', has played himself numerous times in TV ...

, Ron Ekers, Roberta Vaile, 1996. A Search for Artificial Signals from the Small Magellanic Cloud ''The

Astronomical Journal ''The Astronomical Journal'' (often abbreviated ''AJ'' in scientific papers and references) is a peer-reviewed monthly scientific journal owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and currently published by IOP Publishing. It is one of the p ...

112'', 164-166. A memorial garden at the University of Western Sydney was dedicated to Bobbie in 1999, and there is a park/reserve in

Camden, New South Wales Camden is a historic town and suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, located 65 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district. Camden was the administrative centre for the local government area of Camden Council until July/August ...

(at ), named after her. The binary

main-belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

asteroid 6708 Bobbievaile, discovered by Australian astronomer

Robert McNaught Robert H. McNaught (born in Scotland in 1956) is a Scottish-Australian astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). He has collaborated with David J. Asher of the Armagh Observato ...

in 1989 was also named in her memory. Naming citation was published on 22 April 1997 ().

References

External links

- Bobbie Vaile Reserve

- Bioastronomy News, Fall 1993, Vol 4

- Bright Sparcs biography

- SETI articles listing

- SETI Australia Centre

- SETI Australia Centre - Bobbie Vaile Page

- Women in Astronomy reference

- Planetary Society, Australian Volunteers Page

- Positive Consequences of SETI Before Detection paper

- QUICKSMART - Introductory Physics

- ASC Unsung Hero Bobbie Vaile page

- SETI News article

- Smithsonian/NASA ADS abstract of "The Corona Australis Complex" paper

- Tributes {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaile, Bobbie 20th-century Australian astronomers Women astronomers 1959 births 1996 deaths University of New South Wales alumni People from Junee 20th-century Australian women scientists