He joined the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands where he developed his research into gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and obtained a PhD degree in 2008.
In 2015 he was awarded a prestigious Senior Curtin University Fellowship developing an outstanding profile in the field of accretion physics.
[1] Curran was the inaugural chair of the ICRAR's Curtin University Node's development and STEM equity committee, which led to the first Australian Bronze Pleiades award received by the institute in 2014.
Curtin University began awarding the Peter Curran Memorial Fellowship for Radio Astronomy Research in 2016.
[4] The Astronomical Science Group of Ireland established the annual Peter Curran Award for Best Post-Graduate Contribution to the Irish National Astronomy Meeting (INAM), first presented in September 2016.