48 Notable alumni of
University of Wollongong
Updated:
The University of Wollongong is 1194th in the world, 25th in Oceania, and 20th in Australia by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 48 notable alumni from the University of Wollongong sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Julian McMahon
- Occupations
- video game actorfilm producerfilm actormodeltelevision actor
- Biography
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Julian Dana William McMahon was an Australian-American actor. He was the only son of William McMahon, a former Prime Minister of Australia. He was best known for his roles as Ben Lucini in Home and Away, Detective John Grant in Profiler, Cole Turner in Charmed, Dr. Christian Troy in Nip/Tuck, Doctor Doom in the Fantastic Four duology, Jonah in Runaways and Jess LaCroix in FBI: Most Wanted. His other films include Premonition, Red, and The Surfer. For his performance in Nip/Tuck, McMahon was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Drama Series.
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Clare Bowen
- Occupations
- film directorsingeractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Clare Maree Bowen is an Australian actress, singer and dancer, best known for her role as Scarlett O'Connor in the ABC/CMT musical-drama television series Nashville. Alongside her music releases from Nashville and her solo debut album, Bowen also records with her husband Brandon Young as Bowen*Young.
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Stef Dawson
- Occupations
- television actorfilm directoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Stef Dawson is an Australian actress. She portrayed Annie Cresta in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2. She also made a cameo appearance in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
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Tim Robards
- Occupations
- actortelevision actormodel
- Biography
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Timothy Robards is an Australian actor, chiropractor, model, and television personality. Robards worked as a chiropractor for seven years, before he was cast in the first season of The Bachelor Australia. He chose Anna Heinrich in the finale. The couple later appeared on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in 2015. Robards took part in the fifteenth season of Dancing with the Stars and appeared on Australian Ninja Warrior.
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Glenn Diesen
- Years
- 1979-.. (age 47)
- Enrolled in the University of Wollongong
- Studied in 1999-2001
- Occupations
- political punditpolitical scientist
- Biography
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Glenn Eric Andre Diesen is a Norwegian political scientist, political commentator and politician currently serving as a professor at the Department of Business, History and Social Sciences, University of South-Eastern Norway.
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Kate Bell
- Occupations
- actorfilm actor
- Biography
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Kate Bell is an Australian actress.
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Satyapal Singh
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Satya Pal Singh is an Indian politician and a retired Indian Police Service officer of 1980 batch of Maharashtra cadre who is currently serving as member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development responsible for Higher Education and Minister of State in the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation. He is a Member of Parliament (MP) since 2014, representing Baghpat constituency, Uttar Pradesh in the 16th Lok Sabha and then retaining his seat in 2019 elections.
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Mark Cutifani
- Enrolled in the University of Wollongong
- Graduated with Bachelor of Science in engineering
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Mark Cutifani CBE is an Australian businessman and current chairman of the energy transition metals board at Vale Base Metals. He is the Senior Independent Director with Laing O'Rourke and chairs the board's Sustainability Committee. He is also a non-executive director of Total S.A and chairs the board's Sustainability Committee.
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Jamie Peacock
- Occupations
- rugby league player
- Biography
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James Darryl Peacock MBE, is an English motivational speaker, leadership mentor and former professional rugby league footballer.
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Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
- Occupations
- lawyerpoliticianjournalist
- Biography
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Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum CF is a Fijian politician and a former cabinet minister. He was the Fijian Attorney-General and the Minister for Economy, Civil Service and Communications, and also served as the Minister responsible for Climate Change under the FijiFirst government. He is the third-highest polling candidate from the Fijian general elections of 2014, 2018 and 2022.
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Van Badham
- Occupations
- writerplaywrightnovelistcolumnist
- Biography
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Vanessa Badham is an Australian writer and activist. A playwright and novelist, she writes dramas and comedies. She is a regular columnist for the Guardian Australia website.
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Amy Walker
- Occupations
- singerstage actorYouTuberactortelevision producer
- Biography
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Amy Walker is an American actress and singer. She is best known for voicing Lunara in the video game Heroes of the Storm and a variety of characters in Fallout 76.
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Estelle Asmodelle
- Occupations
- screenwriterastronomerfilm directoractor
- Biography
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Estelle Asmodelle, formerly known as Estelle Maria Croot, is an Australian polymath and transgender activist. She has also worked as a model, actress, belly dancer, musician, abstract artist, and physicist. On 13 October 1987, she became the first legal transgender person in Australia to be recognised by the Births, Deaths and Marriages Department of New South Wales. She was the first Australian trans person to receive a passport with a revised gender marker. In 1986, she was referred to as "Australia’s First Sex-Change Pin-up Girl" and has received media coverage since the 1980s.
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Merlinda Bobis
- Years
- 1959-.. (age 67)
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Merlinda Bobis is a contemporary Filipina-Australian writer and academic.
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Victoria Thaine
- Occupations
- actorfilm director
- Biography
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Victoria Thaine is an Australian television and film actress and former playwright.
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Jihad Dib
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jihad Dib is a Lebanese-born Australian politician who has served as the member for Bankstown in the NSW lower house since 2023 as a member of the Labor Party.
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Rob Oakeshott
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Robert James Murray Oakeshott is a retired Australian politician. He was the independent Member of the House of Representatives for the Division of Lyne in New South Wales from 2008, when he won the 2008 Lyne by-election, until his retirement in 2013. Oakeshott described his views as economically conservative and socially progressive.
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Stephen Jones
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Stephen Patrick Jones is an Australian diplomat and former politician who represented the Division of Whitlam (formerly Throsby) for the Australian Labor Party from the 2010 Australian federal election until 2025. From 2022 to 2025, he served as Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services in the first Albanese ministry.
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Desmond Lim
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Desmond Lim Bak Chuan is a Singaporean politician who has been serving as chairperson of the Singapore Democratic Alliance since 2001.
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Peter Comensoli
- Occupations
- Catholic priestCatholic bishop
- Biography
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Peter Andrew Comensoli is an Australian Catholic prelate who was named the ninth Archbishop of Melbourne on 29 June 2018.
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Michael Noonan
- Occupations
- military personnel
- Biography
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Vice Admiral Michael Joseph Noonan, AO is a retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Navy, who served as Chief of Navy from 6 July 2018 to 6 July 2022. He previously served as Commander Border Protection Command from 2013 to 2015 and Deputy Chief of Navy from 2016 to 2018.
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Michellie Jones
- Occupations
- triathlete
- Biography
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Michellie Yvonne Jones AM is an Australian triathlete. She has won two ITU Triathlon World Championships, an Olympic silver medal, and the 2006 Ironman World Championship. She won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Paralympics as a guide for Katie Kelly, when paratriathlon made its debut at the Paralympics.
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Karl Kruszelnicki
- Occupations
- physicianscientistwriter
- Biography
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Karl Sven Woytek Sas Konkovitch Matthew Kruszelnicki AM, often referred to as Dr Karl, is an Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio, television, and podcasts.
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Eloise Wellings
- Occupations
- long-distance runner
- Biography
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Eloise Wellings is an Australian long-distance runner. She represented her country at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, the 2010 edition in New Delhi and the 2014 edition in Glasgow, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. In 2016, she made the finals of both the 5,000m and 10,000m races at 2016 Summer Olympics.
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Ryan Park
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ryan John Park is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since March 2011, representing the electorate of Keira. He is the current Minister for Health. He previously served as the NSW Shadow Minister for Health since 2019, and the Shadow Minister for the Illawarra since 2013. He is the third most senior Labor MP in the NSW Legislative Assembly.
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Ben Creagh
- Occupations
- rugby league player
- Biography
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Benjamin Creagh is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who co-captained the St George Illawarra Dragons of the National Rugby League. An Australian international and New South Wales State of Origin representative forward, he played his whole NRL career with the Dragons, with whom he won the 2010 NRL Premiership.
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Alex Zelinsky
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Alexander "Alex" Zelinsky is an Australian computer scientist, systems engineer and roboticist. His career spans innovation, science and technology, research and development, commercial start-ups and education. Professor Zelinsky is Vice-chancellor and President of the University of Newcastle joining the university on 19 November 2018. He was the Chief Defence Scientist of Australia from March 2012 until November 2018. As Chief Defence Scientist he led defence science and technology for Australia's Department of Defence.
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Omowunmi Sadik
- Occupations
- chemistteacherinventor
- Biography
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Omowunmi "Wunmi" A. Sadik is a Nigerian-American professor, chemist, and inventor working at New Jersey Institute of Technology. She has developed microelectrode biosensors for detection of drugs and explosives and is working on the development of technologies for recycling metal ions from waste, for use in environmental and industrial applications. In 2012, Sadik co-founded the non-profit Sustainable Nanotechnology Organization.
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Michael Organ
- Occupations
- archivistpolitician
- Biography
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Michael Keith Organ is a former Australian politician and archivist. He was an Australian Greens member of the Australian House of Representatives between 2002 and 2004, representing the Division of Cunningham, New South Wales. He was the first member of the Greens to win a seat in the House of Representatives, having won a by-election which the Liberal Party did not contest.
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Nicole Beck
- Occupations
- rugby union playerrugby sevens playerrugby league player
- Biography
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Nicole Elise Beck OAM is a female Australian rugby union player who plays as a wing for Australia, Sydney and Sydney University. She won a gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
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Judith Wilyman
- Occupations
- anti-vaccine activist
- Biography
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Roslyn Judith "Judy" Wilyman is an Australian anti-vaccination activist who came to prominence following the controversial award of a humanities PhD titled "A critical analysis of the Australian government's rationale for its vaccination policy" by University of Wollongong. The thesis came under heavy criticism from multiple directions, including medical professionals, due to claims within the thesis, including advancing a conspiracy theory whereby the World Health Organization and the pharmaceutical industry supposedly conspire to promote vaccinations in the absence of evidence of safety and efficacy. The awarding of the degree created questions about the standards being applied and whether or not the thesis supervisors and examiners had sufficient knowledge to oversee the research, and led to calls for the university to review the doctorate. A number of individuals and medical organisations – including academics and researchers from other parts of the University of Wollongong – spoke out against the findings of the thesis, emphasising the need for vaccinations in order to prevent serious disease; and the University of Wollongong was criticised for a perceived lack of transparency in their doctoral process and an alleged failure to uphold standards of scholarship.
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Melanie Tait
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- radio personality
- Biography
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Melanie Tait is an Australian playwright, screenwriter and author. As of 2024 a freelance journalist, she often writes for ABC Online, Guardian Australia, and news.com.au. She is the author of several plays, including The Appleton Ladies' Potato Race, which was made into a film of the same name, released in 2023.
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Alan Marshall
- Occupations
- writerscientist
- Biography
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Alan Marshall is an Australian author, scholar, and artist working within the discipline of environmental studies. He is noted as a key scholar in environmental ethics and for his investigations into eco-friendly cities of the future.
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John Tranter
- Occupations
- poeteditor
- Biography
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John Ernest Tranter was an Australian poet, publisher and editor. He published more than twenty books of poetry; devising, with Jan Garrett, the long running ABC radio program Books and Writing; and founding in 1997 the internet quarterly literary magazine Jacket which he published and edited until 2010, when he gave it to the University of Pennsylvania.
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Leigh Blackmore
- Occupations
- poetliterary critic
- Biography
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Leigh Blackmore (born 1959) is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist, musician and proponent of post-left anarchy. He was the Australian representative for the Horror Writers of America (1994–95) and served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association (2010–2011). His work has been nominated six times for the Ditmar Award, twice for fiction (including Best Collected Work) and four times for the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism. He has been a Finalist in both the Poetry and Criticism categories of the Australian Shadows Awards. He has contributed entries to such encyclopedias as S. T. Joshi and Stefan J. Dziemianowicz (eds) Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press, 2005, 3 vols) and June Pulliam and Tony Fonseca (eds), Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend (ABC-Clio, 2016).
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Paul Green
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Paul Green, an Australian former politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council representing the Christian Democratic Party (CDP) from 2011 to 2019.
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Edmond Atalla
- Enrolled in the University of Wollongong
- Graduated with Bachelor of Engineering
- Occupations
- politiciancivil engineer
- Biography
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Edmond Atalla is an Australian politician and professional engineer. A member of the Labor Party, Atalla has represented Mount Druitt in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly since 2015. The child of Coptic Egyptian parents, Atalla is known for his advocacy for members of Australia's Coptic community.
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Jim Green
- Occupations
- environmentalist
- Biography
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Jim Green is an anti-nuclear campaigner with Friends of the Earth Australia. Green is a regular media commentator on nuclear issues. He has an honours degree in public health from the University of Wollongong and was awarded a PhD in science and technology studies for his analysis of the Lucas Heights research reactor debates.
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Willy Susilo
- Born in
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Indonesia - Occupations
- computer scientistengineer
- Biography
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Willy Susilo is an Australian cybersecurity scientist and cryptographer. He is a Distinguished Professor at the School of Computing and Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences University of Wollongong, Australia.
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Tristan Knowles
- Years
- 1983-.. (age 43)
- Occupations
- basketball player
- Biography
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Tristan Malcolm Knowles, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player and won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and silver medals at the 2004 Athens and 2012 London Paralympics. He was a member of the Roller at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, his sixth Games.
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Wendy Richardson
- Occupations
- writerplaywright
- Biography
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Wendy Richardson, OAM is one of Australia's most popular playwrights, best known as the author of Windy Gully. Richardson lives in Mount Kembla near Wollongong, New South Wales. She is very active in the local community, working with disabled and disadvantaged youth, assisting those in need, teaching Sunday School and participating in historical and literary events.
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Bryan Doyle
- Years
- 1963-.. (age 63)
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Bryan Michael Doyle is an Australian former politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Campbelltown for the Liberal Party from 2011 to 2015.
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Graham West
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Graham James West an Australian former politician. He was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Campbelltown between 2001 and 2011 for the Labor Party.
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Fernanda Borges
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Fernanda Borges is an East Timorese politician.
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Branka Pupovac
- Occupations
- wheelchair tennis player
- Biography
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Branka Pupovac is a Paralympic wheelchair tennis competitor from Australia.
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Michael E. Rose
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Michael E. Rose is a Canadian author of books which include thriller novels. He is also a playwright. He is a former journalist, broadcaster and foreign correspondent, and the former Chief of Communications for Interpol.
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Jay Caselberg
- Occupations
- novelist
- Biography
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Jay Caselberg is an Australian science fiction writer. He has also used the name 'James Hartley' for some of his short fiction. His four novels to date are the Jack Stein series, comprising Wyrmhole, Metal Sky, The Star Tablet and Wall of Mirrors, published 2003-2006 by Roc Books. Subsequent works appeared mostly in the small press, comprising "Empties", "The Jackal Dreaming" as J.A Caselberg, "The Memory Box" and "Breath" as Jackson Creed.
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Peter Quinn
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 71)
- Occupations
- astrophysicistastronomer
- Biography
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Professor Peter Quinn is Executive Director of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Perth, Western Australia and was previously the Head of the Data Management and Operations Division at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Munich.
