Dr John Menzies holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Queensland and a PhD from the Australian National University. Following his tenure of the Radcliffe-Henry Skynner fellowship at Balliol College, Oxford, he became a staff astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) where he was responsible for photometric systems and latterly CCD instrumentation. Following retirement in 2000, he was involved as principal scientist in the development of the primary mirror edge-sensing system for the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) from 2005 to its successful commissioning in 2016. His research interests have included searching for extrasolar planets by means of gravitational microlensing, and in characterising long period variable stars in Local Group galaxies.
