Pioneering Flinders space archaeology expert Dr Alice Gorman is promoting her new book, Dr Space Junk Vs the Universe: Archaeology and the Future (Mit Press hardcover and Kobo eBook), in the USA. Dr Gorman also joins a host of Flinders’ women celebrated in The Advertiser’s latest ‘Ceiling Smashers’ series.
With a foreword from UK science fiction writer Adam Roberts, the new book examines the artefacts of human encounters in space, from dead satellites in eternal orbit and moon dust to Elon Musk’s red sports car.
The book – also available as an audio book – shares Dr Gorman’s own piece of space junk, a fragment of the fuel tank from Skylab, the NASA spacecraft that crash-landed in Western Australia in 1979.
Dr Gorman’s Flinders University International Space Station Archaeology Project was featured as part of a Government of South Australia SA Space Industry Centre promotion at the International Astronautical Congress 2019 held in Washington DC last week (21-25 October).
The ARC-funded project is creating a new database record of the past 19 years of activity on the space station.
While away, Dr Gorman was acknowledged in an Advertiser ‘Ceiling Smashers’ series of popular polling for South Australia’s leading women, conducted to coincide with the 125th year of women’s suffrage in the State.
She features among 20 leaders in the field of SA trailblazers in the field of ‘Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space’ – next to a long list of Flinders alumni and fellow staff members Professor Karen Burke da Silva and Associate Professor Maria Parappilly.
Urologist Dr Samantha Pillay and public health physician Associate Professor Nicola Spurrier, who have academic status at Flinders University, also featured in The Advertiser’s list of Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space ‘ceiling smashers’.
Advertiser subscribers can read more about SA’s inspiring women smashing the so-called glass ceiling here. A summary of Flinders’ contributions is provided below.
| Smasher’ list | Name | Flinders’ association | Degree (alumni) |
| Arts, Entertainment and Sport | Kathryn Harby-Williams AM | Graduate | BEd ’90 |
| Arts, Entertainment and Sport | Kerry Heysen-Hicks AM | Graduate | BA(Hons) ’75 |
| Arts, Entertainment and Sport | Olivia Rogers | Graduate | BSpPath ’16 |
| Education and Politics | Professor Karen Burke da Silva | Staff | |
| Education and Politics | Nat Cook | Graduate | BNg(PostReg) ’96 GradCertHealth ’04 |
| Education and Politics | Deirdre Jordan | Graduate – Honorary | DLitt ’86 |
| Education and Politics | Diana Laidlaw AM | Graduate | BA ’77 DUniv ’03 |
| Education and Politics | Associate Professor Maria Parappilly | Staff | |
| Education, Science and Medicine | Denise Bradley AC | Graduate | MSocAdmin ’87 |
| Education, Science and Medicine | Susan Beal | Graduate | DM ’88 |
| Education, Science and Medicine | Maria Makrides | Graduate | PhD(Med) ’95 |
| Education, Science and Medicine | Judith Roberts AO | Graduate – Honorary | DUniv ’08 |
| Education, Science and Medicine | Leanna Read | Graduate | PhD(Med) ’82 |
| Law and Social Justice | Khadija Gbla | Graduate | BIntSt ’14 |
| Business, Finance, Food and Wine | Christine Charles | Graduate | BA(Hons) ’90 |
| Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space | Claudine Bonder | Graduate | PhD(Med) ’01 |
| Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space | Dr Alice Gorman | Staff | |
| Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space | Barbara Hardy AO | Graduate – Honorary | DUniv ’93 |
| Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space | Dr Samantha Pillay | Academic Status | |
| Science, Medicine, Innovation and Space | Associate Professor Nicole Spurrier | Academic Status | |
| Young and Inspiring | Eloise Hall | Student | BBus BIntRel |
| Young and Inspiring | Luca Sardelis | Student | BCrim BPs |