About

From April 2014 to October 2017 I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (Mount Stromlo) in the group of Brian Schmidt at the Australian National University (most of that time I was funded by CAASTRO, an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence).

Before that, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in the supernova group of Wolfgang Hillebrandt in Garching, Germany (2009 to 2014). I received my PhD in 2009 from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA, under the supervision of K. Belczynski. I spent the last year of my PhD at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass, USA, in J. Grindlay’s high energy group.

Pre-PhD, I received my Masters from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (2005), and my Bachelors degree from York University in Toronto, Canada (2002). I am originally from Canada’s capital city, Ottawa. I live in Canberra with my astronomer husband and 3 children, plus some chickens, ducks, and a bearded dragon. On days off, I enjoy going camping with my family in our caravan to the New South Wales south coast. My pronouns are she/her/hers and I am an LGBTQIA2S+ ally 🏳️‍⚧️ 🏳️‍🌈 (UNSW training certified).

Research interests

• Binary Star Evolution
• Progenitors of supernovae
• Transient phenomena related to interacting stars

Contact Information

• E-mail: ashley.ruiter at adfa.edu.au
• Website: Wordpress
• ORCiD: 0000-0002-4794-6835
• Mastodon: @astronomash@astrodon.social
• Twitter: @astronomash
• Bluesky: @astronomash

Research Opportunities

Graduate research projects under my supervision at UNSW Canberra include research topics in both theoretical and observational astrophysics. Experience in computer programming (e.g. C, python) is an asset. Prospective PhD students with high academic standing or a Masters by Research can apply to receive a UNSW- or Government-funded scholarship (one of which is required to undertake graduate studies in our group).

Please contact me if you are interested