Brian J. Boyle

Brian J. Boyle is a Scottish astrophysicist based in Sydney, Australia from 1996 to 2019, and in Queenstown, New Zealand from 2020. His primary research interests are in the fields of quasars, active galaxies and cosmology.

He was involved in a variety of leadership roles in Australia, including Director of the Australian Astronomical Observatory (1996 to 2003), Director of CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility (2003 to 2009), CSIRO SKA Director (2009–2016), and Deputy Vice Chancellor (Enterprise) at the University of New South Wales (2016–2019). He was also involved in science-direction setting in Australia for over 15 years, contributing the mid-term review in 2000, leading the development of the Australian Astronomy Decadal Plan 2006–15, and facilitating the development of the Optical and Radio Astronomy Investment Plan for the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy in 2007.

He led the initial development of the Australian SKA Pathfinder Project and, as CSIRO SKA Director, helped secure co-hosting rights for the Square Kilometre Array telescope at the Murchison RadioAstronomy Observatory in Western Australia.

He was awarded the Centenary Medal for services to Australian Astronomy in 2003 and elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2006.

Since 2020, Boyle has been based in Queenstown New Zealand, where he has been involved in a number of environmental programmes. He chaired the Wai Whakaata/Lake Hayes steering committee and has been chair of the Winterstellar Charitable Trust from 2022. He led the successful application to have the Kawarau Gibbston Dark Sky Park accredited by DarkSky International in 2024.