In 2001, the first Mount Stromlo Student Seminars were convened. At the time, they were called the Christmas Student Seminars. The event was created as a space for graduate students to unwind and share their research. This tradition has been passed down to the incoming PhD student cohort for the past 23 years. Over the years, the seminars have expanded to provide students with opportunities to learn and build their skills through panels, workshops, and invited talks.

This year was especially significant as it marked the 100th anniversary of Mount Stromlo Observatory; it was also the most well-attended seminar to date. We welcomed a total of 82 students, with about half being our own PhD, Masters and Honours students, and the rest from Sydney, Queensland, Melbourne, and even as far away as Tasmania.

The theme of this year’s seminar was 'Yesteryears: A Century in Reflection'. PhD student and Aboriginal astronomer Pete Swanton opened the event by sharing some of the astronomy done in Australia by its first astronomers. We heard excellent talks from ANU students Bailey Martin, Patrick Armstrong, Olivia Walters, Li Yusen, Yanjun Sheng, Jason Price, and Madi McKenzie. After taking students on a tour of Mount Stromlo, including a visit to the new Ground Station, they had the chance to mingle with some of the speakers from the 100 Years Symposium: Brian Schmidt, Chiaki Kobayashi, Madi McKenzie, and Ron Ekers, during lunch.

We invited Dr. David Yong to speak about his experience of finding fulfilment and success outside of academia, followed by a fruitful panel discussion with him, Dr. Melissa Ness, Dr. Henry Zovaro and Lara Sharp on careers both inside and outside of academia in a rapidly changing environment.

Following the panel discussion, Sabrina Berger shone a light on graduate student mental health and Madi provided valuable assurance and guidance to students preparing to take the next step in academia.

The seminars concluded, as per tradition, with students voting for their favourite talks. Bailey Martin won Best Themed Talk for his presentation, 'Things we didn’t know 100 years ago,' and Ryan White won Best Science Talk with his presentation on 'Modelling spiral dust plumes created from Wolf-Rayet colliding wind binaries.' This year, we also introduced a competition for the best photo taken during the seminars. Akhil Jaini and Ryan White tied for first place with their photos.

This year’s seminars were another fantastic continuation of the Mount Stromlo Student Seminars tradition. The success of this year is a testament to the passion and effort of all 23 years of previous student cohorts. We look forward to the 2025 student seminars.

Lindsey Oberhelman

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