Dr Vanessa Graber, a world-renowned expert in the study of neutron stars, has been named one of the most promising research leaders in the UK as part of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship. The Future Leaders Fellowship offers £104 million in funding to 68 academics so that they can lead research into global issues and commercialise their innovations.
Dr Graber will join the Department of Physics at Royal Holloway in October 2024 to lead the project. She seeks to take advantage of existing radio observatories and upcoming data from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), together with recent progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), to understand the properties of matter in extreme environments. Three postdoctoral researchers will join her as part of a research team with an interdisciplinary focus. This new research group, part of our growing astronomy group, will address long-standing questions about the nature of the hidden interiors of ultra-compact stars – otherwise known as neutron stars - driving early scientific returns for the UK's investment into SKA.
Dr Vanessa Graber said: "I am excited to join Royal Holloway in the autumn. This Fellowship will be a great opportunity to build a new team of astronomers, condensed-matter physicists, and machine-learning specialists to prepare for SKA. The most ambitious and sensitive radio telescope will start observing in 2028 after decades of planning and we want to be ready to use these data when SKA finally comes online."
We look forward to Dr Graber’s arrival and the science she will bring!
