Professor PARKER, Quentin A

Current Research

• Astronomy and Astrophysics Group: Observational Astrophysics

  • Prof. Q.A. Parker arrived at HKU in March 2015 from the Australian Astronomical Observatory. He currently directs the Laboratory for Space Research (see www.lsr.hku.hk) and has established a world-leading group in late-stage stellar evolution that includes post-AGB stars, planetary nebulae and massive star ejecta. This  task is greatly assisted by the on-going appointment of Prof. Albert Zijlstra as a Hung Hing Ying Distinguished visiting professor to HKU from Manchester University (he is a world leader in planetary nebulae) and also via the appointment of several new postdoctoral research fellows: Dr. F. Lykou, Dr. Andreas Ritter and Dr. Xuan Fang together with three PhD students. Significant contributions to this research field have been made including two HKU press releases and four Nature Astronomy papers between 2018 and 2019. Exciting research opportunities exist for additional research postgraduate students to join the team. This group also has strong synergies to existing departmental expertise in late stage stellar evolution (including supernova remnants) and to the Laboratory for Space Research.

Research Interest

• Astronomy
• Astrophysics
• Planetary Nebulae
• Supernova Remnants
• Large Scale Widefield Survey
• Astronomical Instrumentation
• Galactic Archaeology, Galaxies
• Chinese Bronze and Antiquities

Representative Publications

• “The binary fraction of planetary nebula central stars - III. the promise of VPHAS+”, H. Barker, A. Zijlstra, O. De Marco, D.J. Frew, J.E. Drew, R.L.M. Corradi, J. Eislöffel, Q.A. Parker, MNRAS, 475, 4504 (2017)
• “HASH: The Hong Kong/AAO/Strasbourg H-alpha planetary nebula database” Q.A. Parker, I. Bojcic & D.J. Frew, 11th Pacific Rim Conference held in Hong-Kong in Dec 2015, JPhCS, 728 (2016)
• “Fast, Low-ionization Emission Regions of the Planetary Nebula M2-42” A. Danehkar, Q.A. Parker, W. Steffen, The Astrophysical Journal, 151, 38 (2016)
• “The H-Alpha Surface Brightness - Radius Relation: A Robust Statistical Distance Indicator for Planetary Nebulae” D.J. Frew, Q.A. Parker and I. Bojicic, MNRAS, 455, 1459 (2016)
• “New light on Galactic post-asymptotic giant branch stars - I. First distance catalogue” S. Vickers, D.J. Frew, Q.A. Parker and I.S. Bojičić, MNRAS, 447, 1673 (2015)
• “Kathryn’s Wheel: A Spectacular Galaxy Collision Discovered in the Galactic Neighbourhood” Q.A. Parker, A.A. Zijlstra, M. Stupar, M. Cluver, D.J. Frew, G. Bendo and I. Bojici, MNRAS, 452, 3759 (2015)
• “Four New Planetary Nebulae Towards the Small Magellanic Cloud”, D. Draskovic, Q.A. Parker, W.A. Reid and M. Stupar, MNRAS, 425, 1402 (2015)
• “Spatially resolved kinematic observations of the planetary nebulae Hen 3-1333”, A. Danehkar, Q.A. Parker, MNRAS, 449, 56 (2015)
• “New light on Galactic post-asymptotic giant branch stars - I. First distance catalogue”, S.B.Vickers, D.J.Frew, Q.A.Parker and I.S. Bojicic, MNRAS, 447, 1673 (2015)

Fellowships

• Member of the Oriental Ceramics Society of Hong Kong (2015 - )

• Member of the International Astronomical Union (1995 - )

• Fellow of the Astronomical Society of Australia (1994 - )

• Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (1988 - )

Professional Prizes and Awards for Research, Teaching and Leadership ($4.55M HKD)