I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Sydney Institute for Astrophysics (SIfA) located at the University of Sydney. I had the privilege of being part of the 2023-2024 Superstars of STEM cohort. This initiative, led by Science and Technology Australia, aims to equip and empower women and non-binary experts in STEM fields like me, helping us enhance our media presence and visibility.

Research

I search for radio stars – stars that emit radio light – using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) and MeerKAT telescopes. I combine the radio data from these amazing telescopes with optical telescopes, such as Gaia, and a whole range of other telescopes.

I’m Project Scientist of the Variables and Slow Transient (VAST) survey with ASKAP. The VAST team searches for things that change in the radio sky, things that appear and disappear, things that get brighter and fainter, things that explode and more!

I am also part of the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM), Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS), ThunderKAT, and MeerTRAP teams.

Career journey

I graduated with a PhD in October 2021 from the University of Manchester. My PhD thesis is titled “Radio Transients with MeerKAT”. I worked on searching for and  investigating radio transients and variables with the MeerKAT telescope. I investigated MKT J170456.2-482100, the first radio transient discovered with MeerKAT. I also localised fast radio bursts with the MeerTRAP team, and detected radio emission from X-ray flaring star EXO 040830-7134.7.

My master’s degree in Astronomy is from the University of Amsterdam. I observed the Galactic Plane with the LOw-Frequency ARray (LOFAR) telescope to investigate supernova remnants and a pulsar wind nebula. I was awarded the De Zeeuw-van Dischoek prize for the best astronomy master’s thesis in the Netherlands and the best astronomy master’s thesis at the University of Amsterdam.

I studied my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Science (Science Scholars) at Monash University. While I was there I went on exchange to the University of Warwick for a semester and completed two summer research projects: one at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and one at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON).