Rate My Professor Duncan Forbes

Professor Duncan Forbes is a Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Swinburne University of Technology's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, a position he has held since 2004. Prior to this, he served as Associate Professor at Swinburne from 2000 to 2004, Senior Lecturer at the University of Birmingham from 1997 to 2000, Postdoctoral Fellow at Lick Observatory from 1993 to 1999, and Research Assistant at the Space Telescope Science Institute from 1987 to 1989. He earned his PhD in 1992 from the University of Cambridge and his BSc (Hons) in 1986 from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. Throughout his career, Forbes has taken on significant leadership roles, including Deputy Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing from 2005 to 2008 and Project Scientist for the Faulkes Telescope from 2002 to 2008. He was awarded the ARC DORA Fellowship from 2013 to 2015 and the ARC International Fellowship in 2009. Additionally, he has secured multiple Australian Research Council grants, such as Discovery Project DP130100388 valued at $635,566 and DP160101608 valued at $312,485.

Forbes's research specializes in extragalactic astronomy and cosmology, with a focus on the observational aspects of galaxy formation and evolution, globular cluster systems, satellite galaxies, and galaxy disruption in dark matter halos. He leads the international SAGES project, which combines Hubble Space Telescope and Subaru imaging with Keck spectroscopy to study globular clusters in extragalactic systems. He regularly conducts observations at the Keck and Anglo-Australian Telescopes and supervises a research group comprising PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Key publications include 'Globular cluster formation and evolution in the context of the hierarchical merging paradigm' (2018), 'The AIMSS project—I. Bridging the star cluster–galaxy divide' (2014, cited over 240 times), 'On the formation of globular cluster systems in a hierarchical universe' (2002, cited over 270 times), and 'Reconstructing the genesis of a globular cluster system at a high redshift merger' (2023). His contributions have advanced knowledge in these areas through extensive observational and theoretical work.