Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths

BA (Oberlin College, 1997), PhD (U of Minnesota, 2001)
Astronomer

Professor Naomi McClure-Griffiths FAA is an Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and the Associate Director (Research) in the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics of the Australian National University. She received her undergraduate degree in Physics at Oberlin College and her PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Minnesota. She held roles at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility as an OCE Science Leader and the Head of National Facility Science before moving to the ANU in 2015. Prof McClure-Griffiths is the recipient of various prizes including the 2006 Prime Minister's Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year and the 2015 Pawsey medal of the Australian Academy of Science for contributions to physics. In 2022 McClure-Griffiths was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academyof Science.

Prof McClure-Griffiths's research team studies interstellar gas and magnetic fields of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. She is co-Principal Investigator on two of the large observational surveys underway with the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP): the Galactic ASKAP survey, GASKAP, and the Polarisation Survey of the Universe's Magnetism (POSSUM). In addition to her current research, Prof McClure-Griffiths is heavily involved in planning for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). She is the Chair of the international SKA Science and Engineering Advisory Committee (SEAC).

Research interests

Prof McClure-Griffiths works primariliy on the evolution of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. Her research group aims to understand how galaxies work by getting at three of their biggest evolutionary drivers: gas evolution, magnetism and feedback.

  • Pingel, N, Dempsey, J, McClure-Griffiths, N et al. 2022, 'GASKAP-HI pilot survey science I: ASKAP zoom observations of Hi emission in the Small Magellanic Cloud', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 39, p. 24.
  • Dickey, J, Dempsey, J, Pingel, N et al. 2022, 'GASKAP Pilot Survey Science. II. ASKAP Zoom Observations of Galactic 21 cm Absorption', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 926, no. 2.
  • Anderson, C, Heald, G, Eilek, J et al. 2021, 'Early Science from POSSUM: Shocks, turbulence, and a massive new reservoir of ionised gas in the Fornax cluster', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 38, pp. 22pp.
  • Alger, M, Livingston, J, McClure-Griffiths, N et al. 2021, 'Interpretable Faraday complexity classification', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 38.
  • Wenger, T, Dawson, J, Dickey, J et al. 2021, 'The Southern H II Region Discovery Survey. II. The Full Catalog', Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, vol. 254, no. 2.
  • Wolleben, M, Landecker, T, Douglas, K et al. 2021, 'The Global Magneto-ionic Medium Survey: A Faraday Depth Survey of the Northern Sky Covering 1280-1750 MHz', The Astronomical Journal, vol. 162, no. 1.
  • Hotan, A, Bunton, J, Chippendale, A et al. 2021, 'Australian square kilometre array pathfinder: I. system description', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 38, p. 31.
  • Thomson, A, Landecker, T, McClure-Griffiths, N et al. 2021, 'The Global Magneto-Ionic Medium Survey (GMIMS): The brightest polarized region in the Southern sky at 75 cm and its implications for Radio Loop II', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 507, no. 3, pp. 3495-3518.
  • Murphy, T, Kaplan, D, Stewart, A et al. 2021, 'The ASKAP Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) Pilot Survey', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 38, p. 26.
  • Jung, S, McClure-Griffiths, N & Hill, A 2021, 'Distant probes of rotation measure structure: where is the Faraday rotation towards the Magellanic Leading Arm?', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 508, no. 3, pp. 3921-3935.
  • Livingston, J, McClure-Griffiths, N, Gaensler, B et al. 2021, 'Heightened Faraday Complexity in the inner 1 kpc of the Galactic Centre', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 502, no. 3, pp.
  • Dempsey, J, McClure-Griffiths, N, Jameson, K et al. 2020, 'Cold H i ejected into the Magellanic Stream', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 496, no. 1, pp. 913-920.
  • McConnell, D, Hale, C, Lenc, E et al. 2020, 'The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey I: Design and first results', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 37, no. 48.
  • Ogbodo, C, Green, J, Dawson, J et al. 2020, 'MAGMO: polarimetry of 1720-MHz OH masers towards southern star-forming regions', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 493, no. 1, pp. 199-233.
  • Wang, Y, Bihr, S, Beuther, H et al. 2020, 'Cloud formation in the atomic and molecular phase: H I self absorption (HISA) towards a giant molecular filament', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 634, pp. -.
  • Wang, Y, Beuther, H, Rugel, M et al. 2020, 'The HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way (THOR): data release 2 and HI overview', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 634, pp. -.
  • Lockman, F, McClure-Griffiths, N & Di Teodoro, E 2020, 'Observation of Acceleration of H i Clouds within the Fermi Bubbles', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 888, no. 1, pp. -.
  • Di Teodoro, E, McClure-Griffiths, N, Lockman, F et al. 2020, 'Cold gas in the Milky Way's nuclear wind', Nature, vol. 584, no. 7821, pp. 364-367.
  • Soler, J, Beuther, H, Syed, J et al. 2020, 'The history of dynamics and stellar feedback revealed by the H i filamentary structure in the disk of the Milky Way', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 642, no. -, pp. 1-28.
  • Farrar, G, Lockman, F, McClure-Griffiths, N et al. 2020, 'Comment on "calorimetric Dark Matter Detection with Galactic Center Gas Clouds"', Physical Review Letters, vol. 124.
  • Jameson, K, McClure-Griffiths, N, Liu, B et al. 2019, 'An ATCA Survey of HI Absorption in the Magellanic Clouds. I. H I Gas Temperature Measurements in the Small Magellanic Cloud', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 244, no. 1.
  • Betti, S, Hill, A, Mao, S et al. 2019, 'Constraining the Magnetic Field of the Smith High-velocity Cloud Using Faraday Rotation ', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 871, no. 215, pp. 1-10.
  • Bannister, K, Deller, A, Phillips, C et al. 2019, 'A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance', Science, vol. 365, no. 6453, pp. 565-570.
  • Soler, J, Beuther, H, Rugel, M et al. 2019, 'Histogram of oriented gradients: A technique for the study of molecular cloud formation', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 622, pp. 1-31.
  • Di Teodoro, E, McClure-Griffiths, N, Jameson, K et al. 2019, 'On the dynamics of the Small Magellanic Cloud through high-resolution ASKAP HI observations', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 483, no. 1, pp. 392-406.
  • Thomson, A, Landecker, T, Dickey, J et al. 2019, 'Through thick or thin: Multiple components of the magneto-ionic medium towards the nearby H II region Sharpless 2-27 revealed by Faraday tomography', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 487, no. 4, pp. 4751-4767.
  • Murray, C, Peek, J, Di Teodoro, E et al. 2019, 'The 3D Kinematics of Gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 887, no. 0004637X.
  • Rugel, M, Rahner, D, Beuther, H et al. 2019, 'Feedback in W49A diagnosed with radio recombination lines and models', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 622, no. A48, pp. 1-17.
  • Armillotta, L, Krumholz, M, Di Teodoro, E et al. 2019, 'The life cycle of the Central Molecular Zone - I. Inflow, star formation, and winds', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 490, no. 3, pp. 4401-4418.
  • Di Teodoro, E, McClure-Griffiths, N, De Breuck, C et al 2019, 'Molecular Gas in the Outflow of the Small Magellanic Cloud', Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 885, no. 2, pp. -.
  • Szotkowski, S, Yoder, D, Stanimirovic, S et al. 2019, 'Mapping Spatial Variations of H i Turbulent Properties in the Small and Large Magellanic Cloud', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 887.
  • Anderson, C, Heald, G, O'Sullivan, S et al 2018, 'The extraordinary linear polarisation structure of the southern centaurus a lobe revealed by ASKAP', Galaxies, vol. 6, no. 127, pp. 1-14.
  • Tang, N, Li, D, Heiles, C et al. 2017, 'OH Survey along Sightlines of Galactic Observations of Terahertz C+', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 839, no. 1, pp. 1-12pp.
  • McClure-Griffiths, N, Denes, H, Dickey, J et al 2018, 'Cold gas outflows from the Small Magellanic Cloud traced with ASKAP', Nature Astronomy, vol. 2, no. 11, pp. 901-906.
  • Wang, Y, Bihr, S, Rugel, M et al. 2018, 'Radio continuum emission in the northern Galactic plane: Sources and spectral indices from the THOR survey', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 619, no. 124, pp. 29pp.
  • Thomson, A, McClure-Griffiths, N, Federrath, C, Dickey, J et al 2018, 'Ghost of a shell: Magnetic fields of galactic supershell GSH 006 - 15 + 7', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 479, no. 4, pp. 5620-5637pp.
  • Su, H, Macquart, J, Hurley-Walker, N et al. 2018, 'Galactic synchrotron distribution derived from 152 HII region absorption features in the full GLEAM survey', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 479, no. 3, pp. 4041-4055pp.
  • Denes, H, McClure-Griffiths, N, Dickey, J et al. 2018, 'Calibrating the HISA temperature: Measuring the temperature of the Riegel-Crutcher cloud', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 479, no. 2, pp. 1465-1490pp.
  • Nguyen, H, Dawson, J, Miville-Deschênes, M et al. 2018, 'Dust-Gas Scaling Relations and OH Abundance in the Galactic ISM', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 862, no. 49, pp. 1-18pp.
  • Kaczmarek, J, Purcell, C, Gaensler, B et al. 2018, 'Revealing the Faraday depth structure of radio galaxy NGC612 with broad-band radio polarimetric observations', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 476, no. 2, pp. 1596-1613pp.
  • Li, D, Tang, N, Nguyen, H et al 2018, 'Where is OH and Does It Trace the Dark Molecular Gas (DMG)?', Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, vol. 235, no. 1, pp. 1-15.
  • Di Teodoro, E, McClure-Griffiths, N, Lockman, F et al. 2018, 'Blowing in the Milky Way Wind: Neutral Hydrogen Clouds Tracing the Galactic Nuclear Outflow', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 855, no. 33, pp. 16pp.
  • Herron, C, Gaensler, B, Lewis, G et al. 2018, 'Advanced Diagnostics for the Study of Linearly Polarized Emission. I. Derivation', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 853, no. 9, pp. 10pp.
  • Herron, C, Burkhart, B, Gaensler, B et al. 2018, 'Advanced Diagnostics for the Study of Linearly Polarized Emission. II. Application to Diffuse Interstellar Radio Synchrotron Emission', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 855, no. 29, pp. 33pp.
  • Mackey, D, Koposov, S, Da Costa, G et al. 2017, 'Structured star formation in the Magellanic inter-cloud region', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 472, no. 3, pp. 2975-2989.
  • Fukui, Y, Sano, H, Sato, J et al. 2017, 'A Detailed Study of the Interstellar Protons toward the TeV gamma-Ray SNR RX J0852.0-4622 (G266.2-1.2, Vela Jr.): The Third Case of the gamma-Ray and ISM Spatial Correspondence', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 850, no. 1, pp. 1-19.
  • Green, J, Breen, S, Fuller, G et al. 2017, 'The 6-GHz multibeam maser survey - II. Statistical analysis and Galactic distribution of 6668-MHz methanol masers', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 469, no. 2, pp. 1383-1402pp.
  • Brown, C, Jordan, C, Dickey, J et al. 2017, 'The Southern H II Region Discovery Survey (SHRDS): Pilot Survey', The Astronomical Journal, vol. 154, no. 23, pp. 10pp.
  • Gronnow, A, Tepper-Garcia, T, Bland-Hawthorn, J et al. 2017, 'Magnetized High Velocity Clouds in the Galactic Halo: A New Distance Constraint', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 845, no. 1, pp. 69 (14pp).
  • Bannister, K, Shannon, R, Macquart, J et al. 2017, 'The Detection of an Extremely Bright Fast Radio Burst in a Phased Array Feed Survey', Astrophysical Journal Letters, vol. 841, no. 1, pp. 1-6.
  • Hill, A, Landecker, T, Carretti, E et al. 2017, 'The Fan Region at 1.5 GHz - I. Polarized synchrotron emission extending beyond the Perseus Arm', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 467, no. 4, pp. 4631-4646.
  • Kaczmarek, J, Purcell, C, Gaensler, B et al. 2017, 'Detection of a coherent magnetic field in the Magellanic Bridge through Faraday rotation', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 467, no. 2, pp. 1776-1794pp.
  • Herron, C, Federrath, C, Gaensler, B et al. 2017, 'Probes of turbulent driving mechanisms in molecular clouds from fluctuations in synchrotron intensity', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 466, no. 2, pp. 2272-2283pp..
  • Su, H, Hurley-Walker, N, Jackson, C et al. 2017, 'Galactic synchrotron emissivity measurements between 250°
  • Herron, C, Geisbuesch, J, Landecker, T et al. 2017, 'Polarization Gradient Study of Interstellar Medium Turbulence Using the Canadian Galactic Plane Survey', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 835, no. 2, p. 19.
  • Su, H, Hurley-Walker, N, Jackson, C et al. 2017, 'Galactic synchrotron emissivity measurements between 250°
  • Moss, V., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Lockman, F. J. et al 2017, 'TRACING DENSE and DIFFUSE NEUTRAL HYDROGEN in the HALO of the MILKY WAY', Astrophysical Journal, The, vol. 834, no. 2, pp. -.
  • McConnell, D, Allison, J, Bannister, K et al 2016, 'The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder: Performance of the Boolardy Engineering Test Array', Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, vol. 33, no. e042, pp. 17pp.
  • Beuther, H, Bihr, S, Rugel, M et al. 2016, 'The HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way (THOR) Survey overview and data release 1', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 595, no. A32, pp. 21pp.
  • Lockman, F & McClure-Griffiths, N 2016, 'Tracing the Milky Way nuclear wind with 21 cm atomic hydrogen emission', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 826, no. 2, pp. 8pp.
  • Bekhti, N, Floer, L, Keller, R et al. 2016, 'HI4PI: a full-sky H I survey based on EBHIS and GASS', Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 594, no. A116, pp. 15pp.
  • McClure-Griffiths, N & Dickey, J 2016, 'Milky way kinematics. II. A uniform inner galaxy H i terminal velocity curve', The Astrophysical Journal, vol. 831, no. 2, pp. 8pp.