Lisa Harvey-Smith
Author of General Nonfiction
based in TAS
Lisa Harvey-Smith is an award-winning astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. She has received several major awards including the Australian Museum’s Eureka Prize, CSIRO’s Chairman’s Medal, the Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal for Children’s Illustrated Non-Fiction and the Singapore Book Awards best education title.
A talented communicator of science, Lisa was a presenter on the ABC’s popular TV show Stargazing Live and has appeared in numerous television programs and documentaries about space. She has hosted three national live-on-stage tours alongside moon walking Apollo astronauts including Buzz Aldrin, as well as a national theatre tour with a live adaptation of her first book When Galaxies Collide.
Lisa served as the Australian Government’s Women in STEM Ambassador from 2018-2024, and was an Australia Reads Ambassador in 2021. She is a Professor of Practice at UNSW Sydney and the CEO of Out for Australia, a national charity that supports LGBTQIA+ young people.
Harvey-Smith has published several books on astronomy for adults and children, including:
- Universal Guide to the Night Sky, illustrated by Sophie Beer (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2023).
- Aliens and Other Worlds (Thames and Hudson Australia, 2021).
- Little Book, BIG Universe (an Australia Reads special edition published by Thames and Hudson Australia, 2021).
- The Secret Life of Stars (Thames and Hudson, 2020), which was longlisted for Booktopia Australia’s Favourite Book Award 2020.
- Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Bedtime (Melbourne University Publishing 2019, published internationally under the title Under the Stars: Astrophysics for Everyone by World Scientific Publishing, 2020), which won the Nautilus Book Awards Silver Medal for Children’s Illustrated Non-Fiction 2022 and the Singapore Book Awards best education title and was a finalist in the people’s choice category, 2021. It was a finalist in the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize 2022, Next Generation Indie Book Awards 2021, the longlist for Children’s Book Council of Australia Eve Pownall Award 2020; and the longlist for Booktopia Australia’s Favourite Book Award 2019.
- When Galaxies Collide (Melbourne University Publishing, 2018).
