CURRICULUM VITAE
	Matthew Colless
	January 2026

PERSONAL

Name:	Matthew Malcolm COLLESS
Position:	Distinguished Professor
	Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics
	Australian National University
Address:	Mount Stromlo Observatory
	Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia
Phone:	+61 431 898 345
Email:	matthew.colless@anu.edu.au
WWW:	https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/colless-mm
ORCID:	0000-0001-9552-8075
Google Scholar:	scholar.google.com/citations?user=J6Bm1M4AAAAJ
Publons:	https://publons.com/researcher/2774380/matthew-colless

EDUCATION

• B.Sc. (First Class Honours) 1982, University of Sydney
• Ph.D. 1988, Institute of Astronomy and King's College, University of Cambridge

Substantive full-time positions in bold; honorary & part-time positions in italics.

• Research Assistant, Anglo-Australian Observatory, 1980-1982
• Lecturer, University of Maryland European Division, 1984-1985
• Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Dept of Physics, University of Durham, 1986-1989
• Lindemann Trust Postdoctoral Fellow, Kitt Peak National Observatory, 1987
• Junior Research Fellow, King's College and Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, 1989-1992
• Research Fellow, Mount Stromlo & Siding Springs Observatories, The Australian National University, 1993-1995
• Fellow, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, 1995-2001
• Senior Fellow, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, 2001-2003
• Director, Anglo-Australian Observatory, 2004-2010
• Adjunct Professor, School of Physics, University of Sydney, 2005-2012
• Director, Australian Astronomical Observatory, 2010-2012
• Visiting Professor in the Department of Physics, Durham University, 2010-2013
• Director, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, 2013-2022
• Honorary Associate, Sydney Institute for Astrophysics, University of Sydney, 2013-2016
• Honorary Associate, Australian Astronomical Observatory, 2013-2018
• Adjunct Professor, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, 2017-present
• Distinguished Professor, Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Australian National University, 2023-present
• Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellow, University of Oxford, 2023

• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
• Fellow of the Astronomical Society of Australia
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Full member of the American Astronomical Society
• Member of the International Astronomical Union
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Publications lists [SciX/ADS]: all by date | all by citations | refereed by date | refereed by citations |
  other by date | other by citations
• Publication & citation counts: 486 publications with 45709 SciX/ADS citations and 62240 Google Scholar citations (262 refereed papers with 42073 SciX citations; 224 other papers with 3636 SciX citations)
• Citation metrics [SciX/ADS]: h-index = 106; m-index = 2.6
• Citation metrics [Google Scholar]: h-index = 120; m-index = 3.1
• Citation distribution [SciX/ADS]: 5 papers with >1000 citations; 110 papers with >100 citations
• Citation distribution [Google Scholar]: 12 papers with >1000 citations; 138 papers with >100 citations
• High-impact papers [SciX/ADS]: 5 refereed papers in the 1000 most-cited astronomy papers of all time;
  63 refereed papers (25%) in the top 1% most-cited astronomy papers from their year of publication
• ISI Highly Cited Researcher 2007-2014 (250 most-cited researchers in Space Sciences in last 25 years)
• Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher 2020
• Analysis of publications, citations and metrics [SciX/ADS]

• 18 research grants worth a total of $7.3M
• 22 instrumentation grants worth a total of $16.5M
• 2 ARC Centre of Excellence grants worth $50.9M
• Full list of grants

• Science Foundation for Physics Awards for Excellence, Scholarship 1982, University of Sydney
• Henry Chamberlain Russell Prize in Astronomy 1982, University of Sydney
• Ormsby Hamilton Radio Prize 1984, University of Sydney
• Shell Australia Postgraduate Scholarship in Science and Engineering 1983-1986, University of Cambridge
• Lindemann Trust Fellowship 1987, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona
• Junior Research Fellowship 1989, King's College, University of Cambridge
• Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal 1994, awarded by the Astronomical Society of India for "exceptional scientific contributions in the field of astronomy and astrophysics"
• ISI Citation Laureate 2001, the 33 most highly-cited Australian scientists, with 7 high-impact papers in the period 1981-1998
• Eureka Prize for Scientific Research, Finalist 2001 & 2002
• Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2004, for "major contributions to astronomical research in the fields of galaxy evolution, clusters of galaxies, the large-scale structure and motions of galaxies, and observational cosmology [and as] a driving force behind the development of multi-object spectroscopy as a powerful tool for statistical astronomy"
• Harley Wood Lecturer 2004, Astronomical Society of Australia
• Malcolm McIntosh Memorial Lecture 2004, CSIRO
• John Bolton Memorial Lecture 2005, CSIRO
• ISI Highly Cited Researcher 2007, the 250 most-cited researchers in Space Sciences in the past 25 years
• Royal Astronomical Society Group Achievement Award 2007, to the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey Team for "outstanding achievement by a large consortium in any branch of astronomy"
• Walter Burfitt Prize of the Royal Society of New South Wales 2007, awarded every three years to "a worker in pure or applied science, resident in Australia or New Zealand, whose papers during the past six years are deemed of the highest scientific merit"
• Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society 2009, for "an outstanding personal research programme, particularly in galaxy structure and evolution, and large-scale structure [and] in recognition of his leadership role in Australian astronomy"
• Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2015, "for distinguished contributions to international astronomy through leadership of the Australian Astronomical Observatory and the ANU Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics"
• Peter McGregor Prize 2016, as a member of the Sydney-AAO Multi-IFU (SAMI) instrument team, for "exceptional achievement or innovation in astronomical instrumentation"
• Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher 2020
• ANU Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Contribution to the University 2022
• Royal Society Wolfson Visiting Fellow 2023, University of Oxford
• Officer of the Order of Australia 2023, "for distinguished service to scientific research, particularly to astronomy and astrophysics, and to professional societies"
• Robert Ellery Lectureship 2024, Astronomical Society of Australia, "in recognition of outstanding and continuing contributions to cosmology, extragalactic astronomy and to the astronomical community in Australia"

• Australian Time Assignment Committee, Anglo-Australian Telescope, 1993-1996
• Hubble Space Telescope Cycle 5 Review Panel Galaxies and Clusters, 1994
• Principal Investigator and Team Leader, the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, 1995-2003
• Australian observer, ESO Science and Technical Committee, 1996
• Staff Representative, Board of Studies, ANU Astronomy & Astrophysics Graduate Program, 1996-1998
• Chair of the Advisory Committee on Instrumentation for the Anglo-Australian Telescope, 1998-2000
• Member of the Australian Gemini Science Advisory Committee, 1998-2001
• Principal Investigator and Team Leader, the 6dF Galaxy Survey, 1998-2005
• Chair of the Anglo-Australian Observatory Users Committee, 2000-2001
• Member of Editorial Board for Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 2000-2001
• Chair, National Committee for Astronomy Working Group, Mid-Term Review of the Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy, 2000-2001
• Member, National Committee for Astronomy of the Australian Academy of Science, 2001-2022
• Member, Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Board, 2002-2003
• Member, NOAO/NSF Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope Working Group, 2002-2008
• Chair, National Committee for Astronomy Working Group on Extremely Large Telescopes, 2003-2007
• Member, Council of the Astronomical Society of Australia, 2003-2006
• Member, Australian Astronomy Board of Management, 2004-2007
• Member, Australia Telescope National Facility Steering Committee, 2004-2012
• Member, Australian Centre for Astrobiology Advisory Board, 2004-2007
• Member of the Australian Gemini Steering Committee, 2004-2009
• Australian Partnership for Advanced Supercomputing, Astronomy Steering Committee, 2005-2009
• Member, Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy 2006-2015, Working Groups 2.1 & 3.2
• Member, Giant Magellan Telescope Board, 2006-2015
• Chair, National Committee for Astronomy of the Australian Academy of Science, 2006-2009
• Chair, International Year of Astronomy, Australian Advisory Group, 2007-2010
• Member, Australian Giant Magellan Telescope Advisory Committee, 2007-2009
• Member, National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, Frontier Technologies WG, 2008
• Vice-Chair of the Giant Magellan Telescope Board, 2009-2015
• Member, LAMOST Science Review Panel, May 2009
• National Representative, IAU General Assembly XXVII, Rio de Janeiro, August 2009
• Member, Science Advisory Board, Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, 2009-2017
• Vice-President, International Astronomical Union, 2009-2015
• ANU Founder Representative, Giant Magellan Telescope Organisation, 2013-2022
• ANU Member Representative, Astronomy Australia Limited, 2013-2022
• Member, Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, 2013-2018
• Member, Visiting Committee, European Southern Observatory, 2013-2015
• Member, University Research Committee, Australian National University, 2014-2016
• Member, Australian National University Council, 2014-2016 & 2018-2020
• Board Member, Space Environment Research Centre, ARC Collaborative Research Centre, 2016-2017
• Founders Chair, Giant Magellan Telescope Organisation, 2017-2018
• Australian Astronomer Representative, ESO Council, 2017-2023
• Member, ESO Coordinating Group, 2017-present
• ANU Representative, Anglo-Australian Telescope Council, 2018-2022
• ANU Board Member, Australian Astronomical Optics Consortium Board, 2018-2021
• Chair, ANU Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics Board, 2020-2022
• ANU Board Member, Astralis Instrumentation Consortium Board, 2021-2022
• Chair, ESO Paranal Instrumentation Programme Lessons Learned Review, 2023
• Co-Chair, IAU Working Group 278 on Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics, 2024
• Member, Korea Institute for Advanced Study International Review Committee, 2025

• Project Scientist, AUSTRALIS fibre spectrograph concept study, ESO Very Large Telescope, 1996
• Project Scientist, OzPoz fibre positioner, ESO Very Large Telescope, 1997-2002
• Co-Investigator, WIFES spectrograph blue arm, ANU 2.3m telescope, 2007
• Co-Investigator, CYCLOPS image slicer, Anglo-Australian Telescope, 2009
• Co-Investigator, GNOSIS(-J) sky-suppression spectrographs, Anglo-Australian Telescope, 2010-2013
• Co-Investigator, KOALA integral field capability, Anglo-Australian Telescope, 2011
• Co-Investigator, FIREBALL concept design proposal, ESO Multi-Object Spectroscopic Instrument, 2011
• Co-Investigator, VXMS concept design proposal, ESO Multi-Object Spectroscopic Instrument/Facility, 2011
• Principal Investigator, MANIFEST fibre system, Giant Magellan Telescope, 2012-present
• Co-Investigator, Gemini High-Resolution Optical Spectrograph (GHOST), 2012-2013
• Co-Investigator, SAMI multi-IFU spectrograph, Australian Astronomical Observatory, 2013-2014
• Principal Investigator, TAIPAN multi-object spectrograph & positioner, UK Schmidt Telescope, 2014-2020
• Co-Investigator, Hector multi-IFU spectrograph, Anglo-Australian Telescope, 2015-2021
• Co-Investigator, Australian-ESO Positioner (AESOP) for 4MOST, ESO VISTA telescope, 2015-2021
• Co-Investigator, Multi-conjugate Adaptive-optics Visible Imager & Spectrograph (MAVIS), ESO Very Large Telescope, 2018-present
• Steering Committee member, Widefield Spectroscopic Telescope, 2021-present

• SOC, Stromlo Workshop, Peculiar Velocities in the Universe, Heron Island, July 1995
• SOC, ESO Workshop The Early Universe with the VLT, Munich, April 1996
• SOC, A new vision of an old cluster: untangling Coma, Marseille, June 1997
• SOC, Joint Discussion, Redshift Surveys in the 21st Century, IAU General Assembly, Kyoto, August 1997
• SOC, The Young Universe, Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, October 1997
• SOC, Looking Deep in Southern Skies, ESO/Australia Workshop, December 1997
• SOC, Wide Field Surveys for Cosmology, Institut dAstrophysique de Paris Symposium 14, May 1998
• SOC chair, Redshift Surveys & Cosmology, 2nd Coral Sea Cosmology Conference, Dunk Is., August 1999
• SOC chair, ANU Physics Summer School, The New Cosmology, Canberra, February 2003
• SOC and Proceedings Editor, IAU Symposium 216, Maps of the Cosmos, July 2003
• SOC, Multiwavelength Mapping of Galaxy Formation and Evolution, Venice, October 2003
• SOC, The Distribution of Mass and Light in the Universe, Aspen, January 2004
• Invited review, UK National Astronomy Meeting, Birmingham, April 2005
• SOC, 6dF Galaxy Survey Workshop, April 2005
• Invited review, Workshop on Dark Energy, Hawaii, November 2005
• SOC, Science with Extremely Large Telescopes, Capetown, November 2005
• SOC, Cosmic Frontiers, Durham, July 2006
• SOC, Science with AO-fed instruments on large telescopes, Dunk Island, April 2008
• Invited speaker, Australian Academy of Science Symposium, Evolution of the universe, the planets, life and thought, Canberra, May 2009
• SOC, IAU Symposium 262, Stellar Populations: Planning for the Next Decade, Rio de Janeiro, August 2009
• SOC chair, AAO Symposium, Celebrating the AAO: past, present & future, Coonabarabran, June 2010
• Invited speaker, ESO workshop, Fornax, Virgo, Coma: stellar systems in high density environments, Garching, June 2011
• SOC, Cosmic Flow in the Rainforest workshop, Brisbane, March 2012
• Program Committee, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, Amsterdam, July 2012
• SOC, Cosmic Evolution of Groups and Clusters, Special Session, IAU General Assembly, August 2012
• Invited speaker, Cosmic Flows 2013, Marseille, June 2013
• Invited speaker, Feeding, Feedback and Fireworks, Hamilton Island, June 2013
• Invited speaker, Evolutionary Paths in Galaxy Morphology, Sydney, September 2013
• Program Committee, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, Montreal, June 2014
• Invited review, Multi-Object Spectroscopy in the Next Decade, La Palma, March 2015
• Invited speaker, What Shapes Galaxies?, STScI Spring Symposium, Baltimore, April 2016
• Program Committee, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, Edinburgh, June 2016
• SOC, Large Scale Structure and Galaxy Flows, Quy Nhon, Vietnam, July 2016
• Invited speaker, Surveying the Cosmos, Southern Cross Conference, Sydney, June 2017
• Invited speaker, Stellar Populations and the Distance Scale, Beijing, September 2017
• Invited review, Galactic Angular Momentum, IAU Focus Meeting, Vienna, August 2018
• Plenary speaker, 7th International Conference on Mathematics & Natural Sciences, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, November 2018
• Co-convenor & invited speaker, The Hubble constant controversy, Wilhelm & Else Heraeus Symposium, Berlin, November 2018
• Invited speaker, The Very Large Telescope in 2030, Munich, June 2019
• SOC, Cosmic Flows, Large-Scale Structure and Visualisation, Stellenbosch, February 2020
• SOC and invited speaker, Assessing Uncertainties in Hubble's Constant Across the Universe, Garching/virtual, June 2020
• Invited speaker, ACAMAR7: Australia-China Workshop on Astrophysics, virtual, November 2021
• Invited speaker, Astronomical Society of Australia Annual Science Meeting, Hobart, June 2022
• Invited speaker, Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics Working Group, IAU General Assembly, Busan, August 2022
• Invited speaker, 10th KIAS Workshop on Cosmology and Structure Formation, Seoul, October 2022
• Invited lecture, 25th Hintze Lecture, University of Oxford, Oxford, May 2023
• Prize lecture, The Robert Ellery Lecture, Astronomical Society of Australia, June 2024
• Contributed talk, IAU Symposium 392, Neutral hydrogen in and around galaxies in the SKA era, Cape Town, August 2024
• SOC, Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics Working Group, IAU General Assembly, Cape Town, August 2024
• Invited speaker, 11th KIAS Workshop on Cosmology and Structure Formation, Seoul, October 2024
• Contributed talk, Cosmic Flows 2025: Probing the Universe with Peculiar Velocities, Brisbane, February 2025
• Invited Lecture, History & Mystery of the Hubble Constant, on-line, November 2025, Astronomical Society of Australia
• SOC, VLT Beyond 2030, European Southern Observatory, Munich, January 2026
• Program Committee, Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes & Instrumentation, Copenhagen, July 2026