FIRST AUSTRALIAN SKA REGIONAL CENTRE DIRECTOR APPOINTED BY CSIRO AND ICRAR CSIRO astronomer Dr Karen Lee-Waddell has been appointed as the first Director of the Australian SKA Regional Centre (AusSRC). In her new role, Karen will lead the Australian effort to design and build computing and data intensive research capability that will support astronomers using the Australian SKA precursor telescopes ASKAP and the MWA and eventually the SKA.
DR KAREN LEE-WADDELL, NEW DIRECTOR OF THE AUSSRC. CREDIT: CSIRO
Karen has been working as part of the ASKAP team for the past five years, helping to develop and enhance the telescope and its processing software. She is also currently the Project Scientist for the WALLABY survey science team, coordinating a collaboration of 150 international researchers and playing an instrumental role in producing new science results.
Karen is taking up her new position on the 21st of September, based in Perth at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and CSIRO. The AusSRC will be part of an international network of SKA Regional Centres that will come online this decade to support the global flow of data and processing needed for the full SKA Observatory. The AusSRC is funded by the Australian Government, CSIRO and ICRAR. The Centre is led by ICRAR and CSIRO in collaboration with the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, the MWA, the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Astronomy Australia Limited, and the international SKA Regional Centre Steering Committee. For more information on the AusSRC visit aussrc.org. The AusSRC Design Study Program also recently undertook a survey of the radio astronomy data user community in Australia for the purposes of obtaining feedback to inform the development of the AusSRC. The results as well as conclusions and future actions obtained from the survey are detailed in the report available online.
CHINESE SRC PROTOTYPE AWARDED ASTRONOMY PRIZE BY SKA CHINA OFFICE The construction of the world’s first SKA Regional Centre (SRC) prototype, led by the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was recognised as one of the top 10 advances in astronomical science and technology in 2019 by the Chinese Astronomical Society. The Chinese SRC prototype won second place in the category Technology, Equipment Development and Engineering Progress of this annual award for outstanding astronomical achievements in China. The Chinese SRC prototype was first released at the 2019 SKA Engineering meeting and gained global attention. Aiming to promote scientific research and stimulate technical developments in the astronomy field, and enlarge the widespread impact of the astronomical discipline, the award
invites senior researchers to vote online and commends the top 10 most voted applications. The results of this year’s award were published in May. As one of the stakeholders of the SKA, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory organises scientists to deeply participate in the SKA science preparation and regional centre prototype construction. The Chinese SKA team will continue to take international responsibilities and be actively involved in the international collaborative activities.
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