Distinguished Professor Brodie is Director, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University, and Distinguished Professor Emerita of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz. Much of her work makes use of the fossil record embodied in globular star clusters (amongst the oldest radiant objects in the universe) to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies. Although she is primarily an optical/infrared observer with an instrumentation background, she works closely with theorists, particularly in the areas of stellar populations and simulations of galaxy formation in a cosmological context.

Professor Brodie graduated from Imperial College, University of London, with a First Class Honours degree in Physics, subsequently starting career as a cargo trader of refined petroleum products on the International Spot Market.  She pivoted back to academia to earn a PhD in astronomy at Cambrigde University. She was then awarded two prestigious post-doctoral research fellowships that she ran consecutively: a Harkness Fellowship at UC Berkeley, and a Chambers Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge. She returned to Berkeley with a career position as a Research Astronomer and subsequently joined the faculty at the University of California Observatories, headquartered at Santa Cruz.  She took up the role of Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University in 2020.

Professor Brodie has chaired numerous national and international advisory and scientific governance committees and is the founder and CI of a large, successful international research group (SAGES: Study of the Astrophysics of Globular Clusters in Extragalactic Systems).