Anna Scaife | |
---|---|
Born | Anna Margaret Mahala Scaife 20 May 1981 |
Education | Loreto Grammar School |
Alma mater | University of Bristol (MPhys) University of Cambridge (PhD) |
Known for | Big data astrophysics |
Awards | Jackson-Gwilt Medal (2018) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Radio astronomy |
Institutions | University of Manchester University of Cambridge Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies University of Southampton |
Thesis | Observing the cosmic microwave background with the Very Small Array (2007) |
Doctoral advisor | Keith Grainge |
Website | www |
Anna Margaret Mahala Scaife (born 20 May 1981) is a Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester and Head of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics Interferometry Centre of Excellence. [1] She is the co-director of Policy@Manchester. [2] She was awarded the 2019 Royal Astronomical Society Jackson-Gwilt Medal in recognition of her contributions to astrophysical instrumentation.
Scaife wanted to be an archaeologist as a child. [3] She attended school at Loreto Grammar School in Altrincham. [4] She earned her master's degree in physics at the University of Bristol in 2003. For her doctoral studies, Scaife joined the University of Cambridge where she was supervised by Keith Grainge . [5] After graduating in 2007, Scaife stayed at Cambridge as a postdoctoral research associate at the Cavendish Laboratory and was a Fellow of Selwyn College, Cambridge. [6]
Her research considers the origin and evolution of large-scale cosmic magnetic fields. [7] She was a research scientist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, where she was involved in testing for the James Webb Space Telescope. [4] Scaife joined the University of Southampton as an associate professor in Radio Astronomy. [8] Here she worked on Bayesian data analysis, the Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect and radio astronomy instrumentation. [8] She identified anomalous microwave emission coming from regions of star formation. [9] She was part of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager Large Array (AMI-LA), using which she observed young stellar objects in the Perseus molecular cloud. [10]
She moved to the University of Manchester where she was appointed Head of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics Interferometry Centre of Excellence. [11] Her research was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant fellowship from 2013 to 2018. [12] From 2016, Scaife led the imaging pipeline group for the Square Kilometre Array science data processor consortium. [13] She was the Principal Investigator for the LOFAR magnetism key science project. She was part of the commissioning team for the LOFAR telescope, which was a pathfinder instrument for the Square Kilometre Array. At Jodrell Bank, Scaife leads the design of the computing for the European SKA Regional Centre, through the big data project AENEAS. [14] [15] She runs two Science and Technology Facilities Council Newton Fund programs that offer bursaries for scientists from Southern Africa and Latin America. [16] [17] She has established a UK - South Africa program that develops capacity in big data and data science in South Africa. [18] Scaife is interested in using deep learning to study astronomically big data. [19]
Scaife was part of a team of astrophysicists, including Jane Greaves, who identified nanodiamonds in three infant star systems, V892 Tau, HD 97048 and MWC 297 in the Milky Way. [20] [21] [22] [23] She found that the anomalous microwave emission (AME) from the Milky Way might be due to hydrogenated nanodiamonds. [21] [24] Scaife had previously observed AME from circumstellar discs when working with Dave Green at the University of Cambridge. [25] [22]
Scaife also holds the 2017 Blaauw Chair at the University of Groningen. [26] [27] She contributed to the textbook Optical and Digital Image Processing: Fundamentals and Applications. [28]
Her awards and honours include:
Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, England hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astronomer at the university, to investigate cosmic rays after his work on radar in the Second World War. It has since played an important role in the research of meteoroids, quasars, pulsars, masers, and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age.
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was an English physicist and radio astronomer. He was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.
The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), and headquarters, are located at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in the United Kingdom. The SKA cores are being built in the southern hemisphere, where the view of the Milky Way galaxy is the best and radio interference is at its least.
Sir Francis Graham-Smith is a British astronomer. He was the thirteenth Astronomer Royal from 1982 to 1990 and was knighted in 1986.
Rodney Deane Davies CBE FRS was a Professor of Radio Astronomy at the University of Manchester. He was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1987–1989, and the Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory in 1988–97. He is best known for his research on the Cosmic microwave background and the 21cm line.
The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester, is among the largest astrophysics groups in the UK. It includes the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, and the Jodrell Bank Visitor Centre. The centre was formed after the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST which brought two astronomy groups together. The Jodrell Bank site also hosts the headquarters of the SKA Observatory (SKAO) - the International Governmental Organisation (IGO) tasked with the delivery and operation of the Square Kilometre Array, created on the signing of the Rome Convention in 2019. The SKA will be the largest telescope in the world - construction is expected to start at the end of this decade.
Marek Janusz Kukula is a British astronomer and an author of works on popular science. After gaining a PhD in radio astronomy from the University of Manchester in 1994, he specialised in studying distant galaxies. As his research reached the limits of telescopes, he moved into the field of public engagement. In 2008 he was appointed Public Astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich.
Catherine Heymans is a British astrophysicist, the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and a professor at the University of Edinburgh based at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
Helen Frances Gleeson OBE FInstP is a British physicist who specialises in soft matter and liquid crystals. She is Cavendish Professor and former Head of the School of Physics at the University of Leeds.
The Jodcast is a bimonthly podcast created by astronomers at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA), University of Manchester in Manchester, England. It debuted in January 2006, aiming to inspire and inform the public about astronomy and related sciences, to excite young people with the latest astronomy research results, to motivate students to pursue careers in science, and to dispel stereotypes of scientists as incomprehensible and unapproachable.
Richard John Davis, OBE, FRAS was a radio astronomer for the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester.
Mary Almond was an English physicist, radio astronomer, palaeomagnetist, mathematician, and computer scientist who completed an early PhD in radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory in 1952.
Hiranya Vajramani Peiris is a British astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge, where she holds the Professorship of Astrophysics (1909). She is best known for her work on the cosmic microwave background radiation, and interdisciplinary links between cosmology and high-energy physics. She was one of 27 scientists who received the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics in 2018 for their "detailed maps of the early universe."
Sheila Pearson is a British astronomer and the Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer at the Royal Astronomical Society.
Jennifer Ann Gupta, known as Jen, is an astrophysicist and science communicator based at the University of Portsmouth. She has presented on Tomorrow's World on the BBC.
Teresa Mary Anderson is a British physicist and the director of the University of Manchester's Discovery Centre at Jodrell Bank Observatory. She is a professor at the University of Manchester and the curator of science at the Bluedot Festival.
Philippa K. Browning is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. She specialises in the mathematical modelling of fusion plasmas.
Suzanne Aigrain is a Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. She studies exoplanets and stellar variability.
Virginia Kilborn is a professor and radio astronomer with the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University and is Swinburne's first Chief Scientist. She researches galaxy evolution by studying their gas content and is working on the surveys of the next generation of radio telescopes, including the Australian SKA Pathfinder.
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