Sarah Brough

It’s not every day that you get to go on an Antarctic excursion with 75 other women leaders in science and hang out with penguins…but Sarah Brough of the University of New South Wales in Australia (UNSW) did! Sounds cool, right? Don’t worry, we’ll get to that later.

Sarah wears many hats at UNSW. She currently leads Rubin LSST science activities in Australia and co-chairs a working group within the Galaxies Science Collaboration. She’s also the head of the UNSW astrophysics group, deputy director for Science of the UNSW Institute of Artificial Intelligence, is running a series of data challenges to prepare the Galaxies Science Collaboration’s Low Surface Brightness Working Group for LSST data, and leads her own research group. Previously, she served as co-Associate Dean of Science for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at UNSW and chaired the diversity committee for the Astronomical Society of Australia, and she continues to advocate for traditionally excluded groups in STEM to this day. Whew!

Sarah’s research focuses on how galaxies have evolved over time and how that evolution depends on the galaxies’ surroundings. For most of her research career she’s used spectra, which are produced by splitting the light coming from a star or galaxy into different colors and measuring the intensity of each color. Astronomers often take a single spectrum for an entire galaxy, but with a technique called Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS), Sarah can take lots of spectra of different parts of a galaxy – these spatial spectral pixels, or “spaxels,” give a more detailed view of the galaxy. With IFS, Sarah can learn about properties of the galaxy like what they’re made of or how their stars are moving. But IFS requires that scientists already know where to look, which means the galaxy needs to have been discovered, and most big astronomy surveys have only covered the Northern hemisphere sky—a bit of an issue for astronomers like Sarah in the Southern hemisphere! That’s why she’s so excited about Rubin Observatory—Rubin’s dataset of Southern hemisphere galaxies will completely change the IFS game in Australia, opening millions of new galaxies up for study and new discoveries.

Originally from the United Kingdom, young Sarah thought she’d go into medicine. “I was going to be a doctor except I didn’t get the grades,” she says. “So in that moment when you get formally told you didn’t get the grades you think ‘what am I going to do?!’” After deciding to pursue physics and getting her Master’s at the University of Liverpool, she decided that a PhD in physics wasn’t for her. But her interest in astronomy had been piqued, and she ultimately applied for a PhD out of the blue. After four years at Liverpool John Moores University, she took a job in Australia, reassuring her family “I’ll be back in two years…it’s been 18,” she laughs. It hasn’t always been easy though—much of Sarah’s work in Australia has been in temporary jobs. She frequently felt stress around finding her next paid position to keep her Australian visa and credits her women mentors and colleagues for helping her get through the tough times.

Okay, but what about the penguins? One of Sarah’s most impactful experiences was a leadership program called “Homeward Bound” that takes 76 women in science to Antarctica, where they participate in leadership courses together and dedicate time to thinking strategically about what they want to achieve. And while the experience of connecting with other women leaders in science was invaluable, there was another reason Sarah was excited about the trip… “I was penguin obsessed so that was one of the reasons I was really keen to go, but they stank. Penguins really stink. I’m slightly less obsessed now,” she laughs.

In her off-hours, Sarah tries to surf as often as she can—after all, it’s an Aussie tradition! She often intends to be at the beach for an hour and returns home after four. “It turns out that starting in your 40s is not the easiest experience,” she says. But her mental health thanks her for it anyway.

Reflecting on her past experiences, which started with “not having the grades” and led to a PhD in a challenging field, Sarah offers this advice: “If you don't apply, if you don't do the thing, that thing will never happen. You'll never get it. So just get on and do it.”

Lightning round Q&A: Get to know Sarah better!

If you could live in any fictional universe, what would it be?
This will be like revealing all my trashy TV, but I watched Lucifer and I loved that so much, so I want to live in LA with Lucifer.

What is a food or a meal you could eat for a month straight?
Pastries and bread.

If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
I would surf, there's no doubt about that!

What animal would you swap places with for a day?
Has to be a cat because just getting to lie around and eat and sleep and be cuddled all day, how nice is that?

What's your most used emoji?
The laughing crying face, followed quickly by the face palm.