I have an undergraduate degree in physics from La Trobe University and a PhD in chemistry from Monash University.  Following a postdoctoral position at UC Berkeley I worked as a staff scientist at the Anglo-Australian Observatory.

I then took up a position at the University of New South Wales and have been a professor there since 1987.  I was also awarded an Alexander von Humboldt fellowship in 1987, allowing me to spend time at the Max Planck Institute for Extra-terrestrial Physics in Munich.  I have been awarded the Pawsey Medal, the Antarctic Service Medal, and have presented the Ellery, Bok, and Pawsey lectures.