ASA ECR 'How to Series'

The ASA ECR Steering Committee (https://asa-ecr.org), is bringing back the 'How to' Series (https://asa-ecr.org/how-to-series/), designed to answer pressing questions from early-career researchers. Join us as experts walk through essential skills, from writing proposals to navigating job applications, and help you build your path forward. 

These talks are open to everyone! 

Please fill this form if you have questions for any of the speakers beforehand! If you cannot think about anything now, no worries, you will be able to ask your question on the day of the workshop too! -> https://forms.gle/h1ko1qRRsc8U3W9w8 

You can also send your CV, a piece of writing, or even an awkward networking situation to ovidalvelazquez@swin.edu.au. These will be anonymised and could be used as examples during the workshops to keep the sessions interactive!

For this year, we have five talks scheduled:

1. SPEAKER: Jane Kaczmarek

TITLE: Telescope Operations Is a (admittedly niche) Career Path 

DATE AND TIME: Monday 26th October 2026, 2:30PM AEST, 11:30AM AWST

BIO/ABSTRACT:
Dr Jane Kaczmarek is a Senior Operations Scientist at the SKA Observatory, where she leads a team of scientists helping to prepare SKA-Low for science operations and is responsible for developing how the Observatory will support its global community of users. Jane completed her PhD in radio astronomy at the University of Sydney before discovering (somewhat unexpectedly) that she really liked making telescopes work. Since then, her career has taken her from commissioning the Ultra-Wideband Low receiver on Murriyang, the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope, to Canada, where she helped build and commission the first CHIME/FRB Outrigger, and back to Parkes, where she led the telescope’s scientific operations. Her career has increasingly sat at the intersection of astronomy, engineering, operations and people. Jane cares deeply about the role of early-career astronomers in shaping the future of the field, particularly ensuring that the researchers who will spend their careers using generation-defining facilities like the SKA have a voice in how those facilities, their operations and their communities develop today.

Modern astronomy research relies on increasingly complex facilities but the people who operate them, and the careers built around this work, remain largely invisible within traditional academic pathways.
In this talk, I will draw on my experience across multiple major observatories, including Parkes, DRAO and the SKAO, to unpack what “telescope operations” actually involves in practice, and how it evolves over the lifetime of modern observatories.
Operations is often framed as support work — but in reality, it is where many of the decisions are made that enable new astrophysical discoveries. These roles require broad expertise, scientific judgement, and systems-level thinking, and they offer a different (yet still impactful) way to contribute to astronomy research. For early-career researchers in particular, I will discuss what telescope operations career pathways can look like in practice, what skills are valued, and why this can be a deeply rewarding (if under-recognised) career.

2. SPEAKER: Dr. Liana Rauf
TITLE: Making Your Mark in Astronomy: Collaborations, Leading Observing Proposals, and Career Development

DATE AND TIME: Monday 2nd November 2026, 2:30PM AEST, 11:30AM AWST

BIO/ABSTRACT:

Dr Liana Rauf is an OzGrav Postdoctoral Researcher at the Australian National University. Her research spans gravitational-wave and transient follow-up astronomy, as well as cosmology. She is particularly interested in using binary black hole populations and their host galaxies to improve cosmological measurements, and in studying extreme transients that may lead to the next kilonova detection.

Liana serves as a Project Scientist for the Detection Program within OzGrav, where she leads optical follow-up programs using the ANU 2.3m Telescope and the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Through her research, she has developed strong collaborations across Australia and internationally, contributing to a range of scientific collaborations and committees.

Liana is passionate about fostering collaboration and creating inclusive learning environments for early-career researchers, and is dedicated to supporting the next generation of scientists. In this workshop, she will discuss her career journey, share practical strategies for leading large collaborations and developing successful observing proposals, and provide insights into joining and contributing to scientific collaborations and committees.

In this workshop, she will discuss her career journey, share practical strategies for leading large collaborations and developing successful observing proposals, and provide insights into joining and contributing to scientific collaborations and committees.

3. SPEAKER: Anastasia Shavrova
TITLE: How to write a CV that gets you shortlisted

DATE AND TIME: Monday 9th November 2026, 2:30PM AEST, 11:30AM AWST
BIO/ABSTRACT: 

Dr. Anastasia Shavrova is a Lecturer at the University of New South Wales. She is an evolutionary ecologist with a PhD from UNSW, Australia, and an MSc in Biological Sciences from Queen's University, Canada. Her career spans both academia and industry. She has worked as a biology consultant and as an operations manager for several Canadian companies. Currently, she runs a research lab focused on sexual selection and teaches courses in ecology and evolution. She is also a science communicator, having done radio for ABC and appeared at science festivals including Splendour in the Grass and the Sydney Comedy Festival. Throughout her career, she has worked with industry professionals and researchers around the world, and she sits on multiple hiring teams, where she reviews applications for academic and professional roles.

Not sure how to present your experience on paper and stand out? This workshop covers how to organise your achievements and impact, write a standout CV and cover letter, and prepare for interviews. We'll review real examples together to see what works best in both industry and academia. Bring your CV along!

4. SPEAKER: Dougal Dobie
TITLE: Scientific Writing: From Blank Page to Final Draft

DATE AND TIME: Monday 16th November 2026, 2:30PM AEST, 11:30AM AWST

BIO/ABSTRACT:

Dr. Dougal Dobie is an OzGrav Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Sydney searching for radio transients, but with an interest in all transient behaviour. He is the Principal Investigator on projects to observe radio afterglows of gravitational wave events with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. He is also the Survey Scientist of the Variables And Slow Transients program on ASKAP.

In this short workshop I will take you through my process for scientific writing from start to finish, starting with a blank page and finishing with an impactful and compelling piece of text. Through this journey I will provide you with tips for structuring your writing, using precise and concise language, and making the reader's life as easy as possible. This workshop will predominantly focus on writing papers in observational astronomy but the techniques also apply to observing proposals, job/grant applications and (hopefully) other areas of astronomy.

5. SPEAKER: Diana Haikal
TITLE: How to Network Without Feeling Like You’re Networking

DATE AND TIME: Monday 23rd November 2026, 2:30PM AEST, 11:30AM AWST

BIO/ABSTRACT: 
Diana Haikal is Senior Communications and Engagement Lead at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and Consortium Lead of the Australian Research Translation and Innovation Consortium (ARTIC). Her work spans science communication, media, strategic engagement, research translation, partnerships, events and stakeholder relationships across academia, industry and government. With more than a decade of experience facilitating programs, communicating complex ideas and building cross-sector networks, Diana focuses on practical ways researchers can communicate confidently, engage effectively with media and diverse audiences, create genuine professional connections and turn one-off conversations into longer-term relationships.

Networking can feel especially awkward as an early career researcher: How do you approach someone much more senior? What do you say after their talk? How do you join a group, leave a conversation, or follow up without sounding transactional?

This practical and interactive session breaks networking into the small moments that make it work. We’ll look at how to prepare for conferences, start useful conversations, introduce yourself clearly, approach senior researchers, navigate group dynamics and follow up in a way that builds genuine professional relationships.

Bring your awkward networking scenarios and we’ll troubleshoot them together.