ProfessorIver Cairns

Prof. Cairns received his PhD from the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1987. He worked at the University of Iowa (1986-1998) before taking up a prestigious 5-year Senior Research Fellowship at the University of Sydney, one of only 20 awarded over all research fields. In 2004 he was awarded a similarly competitive Australian Professorial Fellowship and in 2009 was appointed Professor in Space Physics (Teaching & Research) at U. Sydney.

Prof. Cairns has over 240 refereed papers published or in press in books and journals, a Hirsch index of over 28, given over 3 plenary and 75 invited papers at international conferences, and obtained over US$7 M in competitive funding (excluding spacecraft projects) from Australian and US funding agencies. He has great experience leading international and national scientific societies (e.g., AOGS, the International Association for Geomagnetism and Aeronomy [IAGA], and the Australian Institute of Physics's Solar Terrestrial and Space Physics [STSP] Group).

He is Australia's national representative to both the ICSU Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and IAGA. Nationally Prof. Cairns is the past Chair (2005-2011) of the Australian Academy of Science's National Committee for Space Science. As such he led the development of Australia's first Decadal Plan in space science, published by the Academy of Science in 2010. He also played a major role in the joint Academy's Strategic Plan for Earth Observation from Space, released in late 2009.

Prof. Cairns is a clear leader of Australia's space science community, writing submissions to multiple Government reviews and entities in the last several years which together with the Decadal and Strategic Plans have led to Australia's Government making space science a major priority and focus since May 2009. He has also led the development of a professional level annual Australian Space Science Conference from 2007.