Australian Institute of Physics

South Australian Branch

Joint meeting
Joint meeting with the Astronomical Society of SA
 Wednesday, November 7th, 2007, at 8:00pm
in the Kerr Grant lecture theatre,
Physics building, University of Adelaide

by Dr David Malin

Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography,
Dept. of Applied Physics,
RMIT University, Melbourne

" Darkroom to Digital "

David was born in 1941 in England. He moved to Sydney in 1975 where he joined the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO). Before moving to Australia, he had an 18-year career as a chemist, specialising in optical and electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and other techniques for exploring the very small. One of his main interests at that time was imaging, both from the scientific perspective and also as a medium for personal expression. That interest has been greatly enhanced in astronomy and he enjoys using powerful images to reveal unsuspected and hidden aspects of the natural world.

Along the way he has devised novel ways of extracting more information from photographs. These techniques have led to some interesting astronomical discoveries as well as being useful advances in photographic science. They have been incorporated into a method of making a series of unique three-colour astronomical photographs, many of which reveal the unsuspected beauty and glorious colour of astronomical objects. He received the Lennart Nilsson Award for this in September 2000.

Dr Malin was, until July 2001, a photographic scientist-astronomer with the AAO. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Scientific Photography, Dept. of Applied Physics, RMIT University, Melbourne. He has published over 120 scientific papers and a similar number of popular articles on astronomy and photography, as well as seven books.

David also runs his own business, David Malin Images, which is the AAO collection upgraded, enlarged and outsourced.

Tea and coffee is available after the main General Meeting as well as a light supper.