Duffield was the natural choice for the first Director of the Commonwealth Solar Observatory – he had spent almost twenty years lobbying for its existence.
The seven mirror segments will form the heart of the Giant Magellan Telescope, designed to have a resolving power 10 times greater than that of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Scientists at ANU have produced the best estimate of Earth's elemental composition which will help them understand how the Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago.