Curriculum Vitae

Name

Prof. Paul Francis

Personal Information

Paul is an astrophysicist, who focussed his research on galaxies and black holes in the early universe, before catching a bad case of the teaching bug. Since then, he has focussed on teaching large classes, both in-person and online. He is infamous amongst his students for talking much too fast in an incomprehensible pommie accent, and for his dubious taste in waistcoats.

He has been involved in many educational innovations, including using role-plays to teach astrophysics, developing the ANU's first MOOCs, which have currently been taken by over 300,000 students from 178 countries around the world, and for teaching the large 1st year physics classes without any lectures. He has won a wide range of prizes for education and science communication, including the 2016 Australian Award for University Teaching.

Areas of expertise

Science, Technology and Engineering Curriculum and Pedagogy

Astronomical and Space Instrumentation

Planetary Science (Excl. Extraterrestrial Geology)

Stellar Astronomy and Planetary Systems

Learning Sciences

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astronomy

ANU Web Link：Professor Paul Francis - ANU