The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) are the two precursor telescopes of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) on the Western Australian site. The CSIRO ASKAP telescope is testing new phased array feed technology and will be the most powerful survey interferometer until the SKA. It has the potential to combine with FAST in China to undertake a ground-breaking survey of gas in the local Universe in order to better understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, and map out the large-scale dark matter distribution. I will show some early results from ASKAP, and summarise the science goals of the telescope and its relation to phase 1 of the SKA. MWA has already completed two years of low-frequency science operations. I will summarise new science results from this telescope, including the EOR and the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (GLEAM) survey which will be publicly released in 2016.
SHORT BIO
- PhD Jodrell Bank (University of Manchester)
- Previous faculty positions: Head of Astrophysics ATNF; Premier’s Fellow University of Western Australia
- Current position: Science director at ICRAR (International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, UWA) and Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO)
- Author of >200 refereed publications.
- Research interests: SKA and SKA pathfinders; deep HI and continuum surveys, cosmology, dark flows, galaxy kinematics, intensity mapping
- Research highlights: PI for the ASKAP Wallaby and MWA GLEAM surveys; project scientist for the Parkes multibeam receiver; single dish and interferometer surveys of the Magellanic Clouds; PI of the longterm ATCA SN1987A monitoring program. |
