Manda Banerji Is a Royal Society University Research Fellow And
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Manda Banerji: Cathie Clarke: Manda Banerji is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Associate Professor I was educated at a state school in Penzance, in Astronomy at the University of Southampton. Prior to this she spent ten years as Cornwall and was an undergraduate at Clare a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge including College Cambridge where I received a First Class holding an STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship during that time. Her research aims to degree in Physics. After a DPhil at understand the co-evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes Oxford, entitled `Accretion discs in binary star and through the exploitation of very large photometric and spectroscopic sky surveys galactic potentials’, I went to the University of primarily at optical and infrared wavelengths. She holds leadership roles within California Santa Cruz as a NATO postdoctoral fellow several international survey projects such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy and there became interested in star formation and Survey of Space Time (LSST). Outside of research, she is very interested in equity and protoplanetary disc evolution. I returned to diversity issues in academia and chairs the Southampton School of Physics & Cambridge in 1989 and, apart from one year as a Astronomy ED&I Committee. Any spare time these days goes into the exhausting but lecturer in Queen Mary University of London, have incredibly rewarding job of being mum to 18-month old twins. been at the IoA ever since ! During this time I have variously been a postdoc, College research fellow, Carolin Crawford: research council fellow, University Lecturer, Reader Like so many astronomers, my fascination with space took root at an early age from and, since 2008, Professor of Theoretical gazing at the stars from the back garden. I read Maths at Cambridge, followed by Astrophysics. I am also a Fellow and Director of observational research for my PhD at the IoA, where I studied the optical and Studies at Clare College. infrared properties of the extended emission around central cluster galaxies and I work on the interface between theory and intermediate redshift quasars. I sustained my career through a variety of different observations of protoplanetary discs and in 2017 fellowships - including two Junior Research Fellowships (one at Oxford, one in was awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Cambridge), a PPARC Advanced Research Fellowship and a Royal Society University Eddington medal for theoretical work on disc Research Fellowship. My research was carried out alongside – and later eclipsed by photoevaporation. I am currently focused on – a growing role in the public communication of science. As the Public Astronomer I understanding protoplanetary discs through using was responsible for the education and outreach programme at IoA for many years, simulations to interpret ALMA data and I received alongside roles as a College Lecturer in Maths, Fellow, Tutor and Admissions Tutor an ERC Advanced Grant on this topic from 2014- at Emmanuel College. I was awarded the UKRC's 2009 Outstanding Women of 2019. I have co-authored an undergraduate Achievement award for "Communication of SET with a contribution to society", and textbook (Principles of Astrophysical Fluid I was appointed as the Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College (in London) Dynamics, Cambridge University Press) with Bob between 2011 - 2015. I have many years of practical experience of explaining and Carswell and received a Pilkington Prize for discussing a large range of astronomical concepts and news to a wide variety of teaching from the University in 2000. audiences, and can often be found talking about astronomical matters on both I was Deputy Director of the IoA from 2015-2018. I national and local radio. However, I'm still at my happiest at the end of a telescope currently coordinate the 3rd year Part II under a clear night sky. Astrophysics course and over-see the IoA’s flagship outreach Programme `AstroEast’ which operates in Debora Sijacki: under-served schools across East Anglia. Dr Debora Sijacki is a Reader in Astrophysics and Cosmology at the Institute of I am married with a son (born 1997). Astronomy (IoA) and Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge. After finishing her PhD studies at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany, Anastasia Fialkov: Debora spent her postdoctoral years as a STFC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Dr. Anastasia Fialkov is a Lecturer and a Royal IoA, University of Cambridge and as a Hubble Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics, Society University Research Fellow at the Institute Harvard University. Debora focuses in her work on computational astrophysics, of Astronomy (IoA) and Kavli Institute for especially studying galaxy formation and supermassive black holes. Her PhD work Cosmology, University of Cambridge. She is also a has been recognised with the Otto-Hahn medal of the Max-Planck Society, in 2015 Guest Visiting Professor at Heidelberg University she was awarded an European Research Council Starting Grant and in 2019 she and an invited ENS professor at the Ecole Normale received the PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for HPC, for her outstanding contributions Superior, Paris. Anastasia received her B.Sc in to and impact on HPC in Europe. Physics and B.A. in Electrical Engineering in 2006 from the Technion (Israel) and her Ph.D. in Physics Belinda Wilkes: in 2013 from Tel Aviv University. After finishing her Dr. Belinda Wilkes is a Senior Astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard Ph.D., Anastasia received several prestigious & Smithsonian. She recently (27 Sept 2020) retired as Director of the Chandra X-ray fellowships including the Junior Research Center, which operates the Chandra X-ray Observatory on contract with NASA, since Fellowship at Ecole Normale Superior in Paris, a 2014. Dr. Wilkes received her BSc. in Astronomy and Physics from the University of fellowship at the Institute for Theory and St. Andrews, Scotland in 1978 and her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Computation (Center for Astrophysics, Harvard), Cambridge, England, in 1982. She spent two years at the University of Arizona's Senior Kavli Fellowship at the KICC and the Royal Steward Observatory as a NATO postdoctoral fellow, and moved to CfA's High Society University Research Fellowship. Anastasia is Energy Astrophysics Division in 1984. She is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical working on a wide range of topics including Society, the American Physical Society, and the Cambridge Philosophical Society, and astrophysics and cosmology with the 21-cm line of a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical neutral hydrogen, intensity mapping of other Union, the European Astronomical Society, and the American Association for the molecular and atomic lines, structure formation, Advancement of Science. She has received numerous Smithsonian Institution nature of dark matter, transient phenomena such awards including the Exceptional Accomplishment Awards and NASA Group as Fast Radio Bursts, low frequency radio Achievement Awards, and a NASA MSFC Director's Commendation. In 2018 she was observations and instrumentation. Anastasia is a elected an Honorary Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge University, England. Her member of several observational collaborations research involves X-ray and multi-wavelength studies of active galaxies. She is author including the SKA, HERA, LEDA, NenuFAR, REACH. or co-author of over 460 publications, including refereed science papers (163, She is also involved in several computational with >11,500 citations, H-index 58), book chapters, papers in conference projects, including being a PI of "Structure proceedings, abstracts, white papers, author or editor of several books, and of Formation in Bose Einstein Condensate Dark science articles in the public media. She is currently visiting the X-ray astronomy Matter" which received computational time on group at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge University as a Sheepshank Fellow. Stampede2 and DiRAC supercomputers. .