Professor Virginia Kilborn is Swinburne’s inaugural Chief Scientist, working to further education, research, policy and equity at Swinburne and beyond. Virginia’s background is in radio astronomy, and she works closely with the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University. Her research interests include tracing galaxy evolution by studying the neutral hydrogen gas in galaxies.
Virginia has a passion for teaching and outreach, and has helped to pioneer a new educational program in Space Technology at Swinburne. She is an executive sponsor of Swinburne’s Youth Space Innovation Challenge, enabling students to send experiments to the International Space Station. With a long-term focus on equity initiatives, Virginia is an executive leader of the Swinburne Women’s Academic Network and a founding member of WATTLE.