Professor Sharp has 25 years of experience developing astronomical instrumentation for many of the world’s leading international observatories. He is principal investigator for the Giant Magellan Telescope Integral Field Spectrograph, a hyperspectral imager that will work with the adaptive optics system at the GMT to study distant galaxies and local star formation. He also leads the Earth observation program at the observatory, seeking to transfer instrumentation technologies and expertise from astronomy projects to enable key sensor components – such as high-performance focal plane arrays – for the Australian led remote sensing missions.