Michael Snowden

Michael Snowden came to New Zealand from the University of Pennsylvania to work at the new Mt John Observatory at Tekapo. However he soon decided to commence post-graduate study. "I quickly saw that the research work I was doing was identical to the requirements for the Masters of Science Thesis at Canterbury University."

He also took the opportunity to link his New Zealand education to practical application within his research work. "As a researcher and a student at Canterbury I saw that I had the freedom to outline my own study programme, with approval by the Physics Department. One could never do that at an American university. However, I had just the right profile with my research background. The things I gained were wonderful."

New Zealand's size and position offered a unique opportunity for Michael researching at the Mt. John University Observatory. "This was the most southern professional observatory in the world, with opportunities no other astronomer in the world could touch, because they did not have the very southern latitude advantage we had for the southern skies. It was a rather unique (and exhausting!) experience for a young astronomer to poke around in the spectacular southern Milky Way knowing that at times I was the only one in the world who could do it."

Currently working as a freelance astronomer, Michael's career has taken him as a Visiting Astronomer and Scientist throughout many of the world's universities Cerro Tololo (Chile), Brussels (Belgium), Cape Town (South Africa), Arizona (U.S.A.) and Harvard (U.S.A). He has returned to New Zealand several times.

"There is a uniqueness here in a lot of ways, and if one is in the right field, as astronomy was for me, New Zealand is a fine place to study."