The cliche of a baptism of fire is unusually well-suited to the story of Australia's newly appointed Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett. Just months after the US-born astronomer arrived in Australia to head the Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, bushfires razed its base at Mount Stromlo on Canberra's western outskirts.
Penny Sackett has spent her professional career pondering galactic structures, searching for extrasolar planets and divining the presence of dark matter. Now she is coming back to earth. The Federal Government announced yesterday it had appointed the American-born astronomer as Australia's chief scientist and was upgrading the post to a full-time position.