Dr. Tobias Westmeier is a radio astronomer and astrophysicist at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). His research interests include the study of neutral atomic hydrogen in the Milky Way and the nearby Universe with the aim of understanding the role of the atomic gas component in the formation and evolution of galaxies. He is an active contributor to several large survey science projects currently being carried out with the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa.

Dr. Westmeier is the Project Manager for the WALLABY survey science project which is currently imaging a large part of the southern sky to detect approximately 200,000 galaxies in the 21-cm emission line of neutral hydrogen out to a redshift of z ≈ 0.1. He uses WALLABY data to better understand the galaxy mass function and scaling relations and to explore the large-scale structure of the Universe and its influence on the evolution and properties of galaxies.

In addition to his scientific work, he is also an expert in the automated detection and characterisation of galaxies in radio astronomical surveys. He is the lead developer of the Source Finding Application (SoFiA) which is widely used by astronomers from around the world to detect galaxies and other astronomical objects in radio astronomical imaging data. He also developed the so-called Busy Function for the purpose of fitting and parametrising the emission line profiles of galaxies.

For his contribution to the discovery and study of high-velocity clouds near the Andromeda Galaxy, Dr Westmeier was awarded the 2008 PhD prize for outstanding doctoral thesis in Physics & Astronomy at the University of Bonn. He subsequently received the prestigious CSIRO Bolton Postdoctoral Fellowship. As a former member of the ASKAP team, he was one of the 2015 recipients of the CSIRO Chairman’s Medal for his contributions to enabling the ASKAP telescope.

More information about Dr. Westmeier’s research interests and achievements is available on his personal website.

• Leader of the “Physics of the Diffuse Universe” science programme at ICRAR (since 2025)
• Chair of the ICRAR Master’s Dissertation Review Panel (since 2024)
• Core member of the  SKA HI Galaxy Science Working Group (since 2022)
• WALLABY Project Manager (since 2018)
• Leader of the SoFiA source finding pipeline development team (since 2013)
• Member of the Australia Telescope Users Committee (2012–2015)
• ASKAP Project Scientist (2009–2010)

• High-velocity clouds around the Milky Way and nearby galaxies
• HI mass function and scaling relations of galaxies
• Influence of the environment on galaxy properties and evolution
• Automated source extraction in radio astronomical data cubes
• Algorithms for source characterisation

Science

• ASKAP surveys
  • WALLABY
  • DINGO
• All-sky map of high-velocity clouds
• High-velocity clouds of Andromeda
• Compact high-velocity clouds
• The Sculptor group
• The Magellanic Stream
• Dwarf galaxies in the Local Group

Software

• Source Finding Application (SoFiA)
• BusyFit (spectral profile fitting)
• My GitLab repository

Media releases

• Personal
  • WALLABY builds an intergalactic map in the outback
    (15 November 2022)
  • Astronomer’s map reveals location of mysterious fast-moving gas
    (4 December 2017)
  • Galaxy’s snacking habits revealed
    (21 May 2015)
• WALLABY collaboration
  • Dwarf galaxies linked by massive intergalactic gas bridge
    (24 September 2025)
  • Gas location drives star formation in distant galaxies
    (21 May 2025)
  • Astronomers reveal cosmic ribbon around rare galaxy
    (13 September 2023)
  • CSIRO telescope offers new insight into cosmic mystery
    (25 May 2023)