Some aspects of the scientific development and astronomical research of Warrick Couch

Warrick Couch was appointed the Director of the Australian Astronomical Observatory in April 2013. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2009 for making “pivotal contributions to our understanding of the evolution of galaxies in rich clusters and the effects of galaxy environment on their evolution and for his appointment as the primary investigator in an international team that, despite intense competition, secured one of the first allocations of observing time with the Hubble Space Telescope,” according to the Academy. He was awarded an Australian Citation Laureate for 1991–1998, and is recognised as a “Highly Cited” researcher with over 20,000 citations. He previously held positions of Head of School of Physics at the University of New South Wales and Distinguished Professor at Swinburne University of Technology. He has also held the positions of the Australian Gemini Scientist and the Australian Extremely Large Telescope Project Scientist and was the Chair of the Anglo-Australian Telescope Board and a Member of the International Gemini Board. This paper discusses some aspects of his scientific development and astronomical research based on an interview the author conducted with him in 2006. It covers the period up to May 2006.