The ASTRO 3D Galaxy Evolution with Lenses (AGEL) survey studies strong gravitational lenses identified using Machine Learning methods in deep optical imaging from the Dark Energy Survey and DECaLS.  The lenses are at higher redshifts relative to existing surveys due to the combination of deeper depth and higher resolution imaging from DECam.  AGEL will spectroscopically confirm about 200 bright (r<22 mag) strong gravitational lenses to enable statistically robust studies of deflectors and magnified sources.

ASTRO 3D was a seven-year $40 million Centre of Excellence project funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (ARC). The Centre began in June 2017 and ended December 2024. Our Centre unified over 460 world-leading astronomers to understand the evolution of matter, light and the elements, from the Big Bang to the present day. We combined innovative optical and radio 3D technology with new theoretical supercomputer simulations on a massive scale, requiring new big data techniques.

Through our nationwide training and education programs, we trained young scientific leaders and inspired high-school students into STEM sciences to prepare Australia for the next generation of telescopes: the Square Kilometre Array and the Extremely Large optical telescopes.

Named after the beautiful wine regions in Germany,  The Multi-Object Spectroscopic Emission Line (MOSEL) survey is an ongoing survey of star-forming galaxies around 12 billion light years away. The main objective is identify factors affecting the rise and fall of star formation activity in young galaxies. 

Our targets include galaxies at z=3-4 that show intense star-forming activity.  These are analogues to galaxies during the epoch of reionisation. They will help us estimate the production efficiency of hydrogen ionising photons and the growth of the ionisation bubbles created by the “first galaxies” in the first billion years.

The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer is an 11.25m aperture telescope that will lead the world in multi-object spectroscopy, with its unique capability to study up to 4,000 astronomical objects at once.

The specialized technical capabilities provided by MSE enable an enormous diversity of exciting science, tackling questions about stars and planets, galaxies and cosmology, and the nature of dark matter and dark energy. 

The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) is a large and deep medium-band imaging survey aimed at establishing an observational benchmark of galaxy properties at redshift z > 1. ZFOURGE survey is carried out using an extremely efficient near-infrared FOURSTAR instrument on the Magellan telescope, in three HST legacy fields: COSMOS, CDFS, and UDS.

With the growing number of confirmed galaxy clusters at z~2, it is now possible to track how baryons cycle between stars, winds, and the ISM when cluster galaxies are still forming a large fraction of their stars. ZFIRE combines imaging from the Hubble Space Telescope with deep spectroscopy from Keck Observatory to study hundreds of cluster galaxies at z~2. By combining with legacy multi-wavelength observations spanning UV to the far-IR, ZFIRE extends established scaling relations to cluster environments at z~2 and is an ideal counterpoint to field surveys such as MOSDEF and 3D-HST.