Sarah Pearce (astronomer)

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Sarah Pearce
OccupationAstronomer
EmployerCSIRO
Known forDirector of World's largest telescope
TitleDr

Sarah Elizabeth Pearce is an astronomer and space technologist, the director of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope, [1] a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. [2]

Contents

Education and early life

Pearce has wanted to work in space since she was a teenager, and remembers where she was, while watching the NASA Curiosity Rover landing on Mars, which influenced her early career. [3]

She was interested astronomy at school, and in answering big questions,

'like how is the universe formed, and what are we made of'. [4]

Pearce has an undergraduate degree in Physics from Worcester College at the University of Oxford [3] and a PhD from the University of Leicester in X-ray astronomy. [5]

Career

Pearce's career has included being a project manager of UK computing for particle science, Deputy Director of CSIRO, Space and Astronomy. She was also the Acting CSIRO Chief Scientist, as well as science advisor for the Parliament of the UK. [1] She has led a team who delivered computing for the Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator in Switzerland. [6]

Pearce led a team of over 250 people at CSIRO as the Deputy Director of Astronomy and Space Science. [7]

When Cathy Foley took the position of Australia's Chief Scientist, Pearce took the role of leading the Science Impact and Policy team at CSIRO. [8] She also ran the CSIRO division of astronomy and space science responsible for the 'Dish' at Parkes, as well as the SKA (Square Kilometer Array) pathfinder in Western Australia. [3]

The SKA telescope is a low frequency telescope, using low-frequency radio, and 'promises a first look at the universe'. Pearce described the work and its applications:

""A project like this is going to need some serious computing power. SKA will have to deal with seven terrabytes of data a second, like analysing 100,000 home broadband connections constantly. That's an enormous data challenge.... And so we hope this will teach us not only how to deal with astronomy data, but ways it can be applied to other large-scale data projects, whether in science or industry." [9]

Pearce has been a judge of the Three Minute Thesis award, where PhD candidates describe their PhD to an audience in lay terms. [10]

In 2025, the first images from the SKA observatory were released, using only 1,000 of the planned 131,000 antennas. Pearce commented that 'The bright galaxies we can see are just the tip of the iceberg... The team has achieved stellar results'. [11]

Publications

Pearce has a number of publications describing the Australian SKA and publications on particle physics. [12]

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dr Sarah Pearce |Dr Sarah Pearce is Director of the SKA-Low Telescope. She leads a growing team working on the world's largest low frequency telescope, being built in the Murchison region of Western Australia, on Wajarri Yamaji country. Her previous roles included Deputy Director of CSIRO Space & Astronomy, Acting CSIRO Chief Scientist,..." witwa.org.au. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  2. ↑ CSIRO. "CSIRO's Sarah Pearce named among new ATSE Fellows". www.csiro.au. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  3. 1 2 3 "Dr Sarah Pearce". Science and Technology Australia. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  4. ↑ Hardy, Elle (2020-05-18). "Dr Sarah Pearce is helping to build the world's largest telescope". create digital. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  5. ↑ "Dr Sarah Pearce – ACAMAR" . Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  6. 1 2 ATSE. "Dr Sarah Pearce". ATSE. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  7. ↑ "Dr Sarah Pearce named 2020 Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year – Astronomy Australia Limited" . Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  8. ↑ "Congratulations Sarah Pearce!". Australia Telescope National Facility. 2020-12-22. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  9. ↑ "10 awesome women in science you should get to know". cosmosmagazine.com. 2022-02-11. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  10. ↑ "3MT winner explores lifelong effects of pregnancy on brain | Inside UNSW". inside.unsw.edu.au. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  11. ↑ CSIRO. "'Beyond what we'd hoped': SKA-Low's first glimpse of the Universe". www.csiro.au. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
  12. ↑ "Sarah Pearce". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2025-10-01.
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