Dr Rebecca Allen is the Co-Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology. She completed her PhD in Astrophysics where her research focused on studying the structural properties and stellar populations of galaxies to determine their growth rates over time and how local environments affect their growth mechanisms.

Now, Dr Allen applies her scientific expertise to help support Australia's growing space industry as the Co-Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute. To this end, she supports cutting-edge research in areas such as microgravity experimentation and Earth observation to build climate change resilient communities and support innovation in space technology.

Dr Allen is the co-creator and manager of the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge and SHINE, where she contributes to the development of the future space workforce by enabling secondary and university students to send experiments to the International Space Station.

She is an experienced science communicator who shares her enthusiasm for space by communicating the wonders of the Universe to others with regular appearances on television and radio.