Main Research Projects

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Main Research Funders

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Research Facilities

Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory at Lords Bridge

​Please contact us for information on operations and visits. Follow these links for an overview and its origins. 

Latest group News

October 2023

• We welcome Dr Haoyang Ye and Dr Charles Walker, who just joined the group to work on SKA UKSRC.
• We have just started operations (October 1st) under the "REACH_21" ERC (UKRI guarantee) Consolidator grant. 21-cm line, here we go!
• Sam Leeney has officially started as PhD student under the REACH_21 project after his MPhil degree last year.

Link to News Archive

Who are we?

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Research Students - October 2022

Full Group - May 2023

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Head of Group

Dr Eloy de Lera Acedo
Associate Professor
@   #   arXiv   X   CV

My research, funded by UKRI-STFC, is on 21-cm cosmology: Dark Ages, Cosmic Dawn, Epoch of Reionization. I lead the Cavendish Radio Astronomy and Cosmology research group at Cavendish Astrophysics and I am the initiator and PI of the REACH experiment. I am also involved in other projects for astronomy (e.g. SKA, HERA, CosmoCube) and ultra fast digital communications and EM metrology, with a focus on applications of astronomy-inspired technology in society. I am an Associate Professor, fellow at Selwyn college, and a STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellow at the University of Cambridge, UK. Recently I have been awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the project REACH_21. In 2019 I co-funded Cambridge Electromagnetic Technology Ltd with 2 colleagues. We offer a range of products and consultancy services supporting technology businesses all over the world.

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Senior Researchers

Dr Jeremy Coles
​SKA Co-I
@

I have a background in Particle Physics where I explored R-parity violations in supersymmetry but have also undertaken projects in nucleosynthesis modelling and tests of higher-dimensional cosmological models. I have now spent many years developing and running international research infrastructure projects with a focus on distributed computing.   I moved into SKA work to coordinate the pre-construction Science Data Processor (SDP) design consortium. Since then I have taken on a number of roles from running the team doing simulations and modelling through to most recently being the Release Train Engineer for SKA Regional Centre (SRC) activities.

Dr Mark Ashdown
​SKA science lead
​Principal Research Associate
​@

Text under construction.

Dr Bojan Nikolic
SKA SDP architect​
Principal Research Associate
​@

Text under construction.

Dr Daniel Molnar
Senior Research Associate
​@

​My work focuses on the development of receiver and calibration for the global 21cm experiment REACH and the SKA radio telescope. Additionally, I am using my experience in electromagnetic modelling in the antenna design. I am also interested in all aspects of radio astronomy and cosmology including the theory and using novel computational methods for achieving precision measurements. I received my undergraduate degree from electrical engineering and following that I worked at CERN, focusing on the LHC machine. I received my Masters and PhD degrees from the Department of Physics, Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge. I have worked at COMSOL Multiphysics as an application engineer for computational modelling and numerical simulations. Later I worked the University of Cambridge in ultra-fast digital communication, working at the Theory of Condensed Matter (TCM) group of the Cavendish Laboratory. Following this I was a senior fellow at CERN researching novel superconducting magnets for future generation accelerators, with a special focus on instrumentation. 

Dr Vladislav Stolyarov
Senior Research Associate
​@

I have a background in radio physics, radio astronomy and cosmology, my PhD thesis was about primordial recombination and CMB spectral distortions. I worked with the Planck team for about 15 years doing software development for data reduction, focusing on maximum entropy methods application for the astrophysical component separation on the all-sky maps, point source and SZ clusters detection and catalogue construction. In the SKA project I work in software engineering participating in the aperture synthesis software development, simulation and modelling, HPC application development and testing on the large systems like CSD3 and Darwin. My research interests include radio astronomy data processing, CMB and cosmology, AGN physics and observations, diffuse foreground astrophysical properties (synchrotron, free-free, thermal and anomalous dust, CIB).

Dr Fred Dulwich
​Senior Research Associate
​@

Text under construction.

Dr Charles Walker
​Senior Research Associate
​@

Charlie’s background is in the study of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs): short, bright, extragalactic transient radio transients with as-of-yet unknown progenitors. He’s spent time building a transient detector backend for the UK’s e-MERLIN interferometer, and at the Max-Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, using the IllustrisTNG simulation to investigate the effects of cosmological large-scale structures on FRB signals as they propagate towards us through the Universe. At Cambridge, he’ll continue investigating how FRBs might be used as astrophysical tools. He’s also part of the UK’s Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Regional Center, working to help the upcoming telescope achieve its many scientific goals.

Charlie enjoys scientific outreach and has formerly spent time working on The Jodcast astronomy podcast at the University of Manchester, and with BBC radio. In his spare time, he’s a keen reader and aspiring writer.

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Junior Research Fellows and Research Associates

Dr Harry Bevins
Kavli Junior Research Fellow
@   arXiv

I work on developing novel data analysis and calibration techniques for 21-cm Cosmology, theoretical interpretations of data from existing experiments and investigating ways in which we can exploit machine learning algorithms to enhance our Bayesian inference pipelines. I have led the development of signal emulators, foreground modelling techniques and a marginal Bayesian inference toolbox. I have applied many of these tools to the theoretical interpretation of current observational upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum from HERA and the sky-averaged 21-cm signal from SARAS3, placing some of the first constraints on the star formation properties of early galaxies. I’m currently working on applications of normalizing flows in the context of nested sampling, and I am interested in applying the techniques discussed above to observations of early galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope.

Dr Ying-He Celeste Lü
​Postdoctoral Research Associate
​@

My background lies in computational astrophysics and high-performance computing for astronomy projects. During my PhD I worked on modelling and developing simulations for AGN accretion, jets and the effect of AGN feedback in galaxy clusters. I have also taken projects on development of large-scale cosmological simulations as well as analysis and visualisation software for simulation output. In the SKA project I work primarily in software development for the pipeline and processing workflows, as well as instrumental simulation and modelling. My research interests include HPC for radio astronomy, radio galaxies and AGN physics, and large-scale structure. I am also interested in astronomy outreach.

Dr Quentin Gueuning
​Postdoctoral Research Associate
​@

My work focuses on developing EM modelling methods and calibration algorithms for wide-band phased arrays, such as the ones to be used by the SKA telescope. My work is funded by STFC. Previously I worked on Inhomogeneous plane-wave spectrum based Physical Optics for the simulation of urban radio propagation. I am currently focusing on the development of very fast calibration algorithms for phased arrays including all mutual coupling effects.

Dr Johannes Allotey
​​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
​@

My background is in commissioning of radio telescopes from measuring the surface accuracy of the primary reflector using photogrammetry to carrying out observations and data reduction necessary for getting the telescope science ready. I have characterised the surface accuracy of the CBASS Southern telescope using photogrammetry and built a user-friendly webpage of quality data plots for diagnostic monitoring of the instrument during observations and science analysis. I spent a few years in the SKA office in South Africa carrying out observations with the Ghana telescope and reducing the data as part of efforts to show the conversion from a communication satellite dish to a radio telescope has been successful, and the earmarked science goals as a single dish and VLBI instrument are achievable. I am currently involved in developing pipelines for the SKA. My areas of research are cosmic magnetism, wide-field wide-band full-beam polarimetric continuum imaging, and machine learning.

Dr Dominic Anstey
​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
@

I have been developing a Bayesian data analysis pipeline for the REACH experiment, which aims at a joint fit of the cosmological 21cm sky-averaged signal, the foregrounds and the instrument itself using physics-rooted models, measurements and simulations. I also work on simulations to identify the impact of systematic errors in the Square Kilometre Array on the ability to detect the 21cm signal.

Dr John Cumner
​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
@

I focus upon the use of computational modelling for radio frequency electromagnetic systems. My work includes designing and analysing possible systematics for the dipole radiometer for the REACH global 21-cm experiment. I am now applying similar methods to understand and develop the SKA-low instrument (e.g. antenna and base station design).

Dr Maya Horton
​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
@

My background is in HPC and radio astronomy. My PhD focused on simulations of radio jets perturbed by supermassive black hole binaries using PLUTO CFD code and a Bayesian jet path finder, and later moved onto observations of candidate precessing sources using the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) and the VLA. Alongside my PhD I worked part-time as a HPC assistant and later moved to a full-time role managing a 6000+ core Linux cluster and overseeing a large CAPEX development. I spent two years working with the SKA’s Science Regional Centres (SRCnet), mostly developing science platforms and testing self-calibration on a variety of resources. I was heavily involved in the development of the LoTSS Data Release 2. I am a member of the NANOGrav consortium and the Royal Astronomical Society’s sustainability group.

Dr Vijay Mahtma
​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
​@

I am a radio astronomer, currently working on the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project to help develop the Science Data Processor: the collection of software, hardware and tools to fully automate the production of high quality science data products from future SKA observations. My research is on radio galaxies, where I try to understand their physics, life-cycles, and their impact on their surrounding intergalactic medium. I am a member of the LOFAR Long Baseline working group, dedicated to state of the art high resolution imaging at 150 MHz. I am also a member of the LOFAR Surveys Key Science Project, LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project and I am co-I of LOFAR2.0 Large Programmes.

Dr Haoyang Ye
​​Postdoctoral Research Associate
​@

​Haoyang has a particular interest in developing imaging algorithms for radio interferometers, and is passionate about creating an inclusive and nurturing learning atmosphere wherever she finds herself. 

Haoyang’s background is in image reconstruction methods for radio interferometers, and she holds a Ph.D. in Astrophysics. She has been supervising undergraduate and postgraduate students alongside her research, and she has a personal podcast named "Wondering Zoe".

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Research Assistants and Technical Officers

Ms Verity Allan
Technical officer
@

My background is in mediaeval history and languages, and mathematics and computer science. I have worked as part of the University’s software innovations group, including work managing services and software testing. I have worked as the Engineer Co-ordinator for the SDP Design consortium, including as part of the architecture team. My current role is as Release Train Engineer for the SKAO Software Services Agile Release Train. My research interests include High Performance Computing for radio astronomy, focusing on the challenges of working with the massive datasets from the next generation of radio telescopes, and the history of computing for astronomy.

Mr Rohan Patel
Research Assistant
​@

My work is on the development of instrumentation for 21cm cosmology on the REACH and SKA projects.  Before starting in Cambridge, I studied a four-year integrated master's course at The University of Manchester where I developed the first software-defined radio receiver for a telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.

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Research Students

Mr Samuel Leeney
PhD student
​2023 start
@

My current work focused on building data analysis tools for use in Cosmology - designing statistical tools that take data from telescopes and output results that are useful to Physics. Previously, during my MPhil I developed a first-of-its-kind Bayesian anomaly detection methodology using numerical sampling techniques. Initially designed for RFI mitigation, we hope to use it to detect other anomalies in the future such as Fast Radio Bursts. Prior to that I developed a machine learning algorithm to classify malignant tissue during breast cancer surgery, which is currently being tested at NU Hospital. My research is funded by the European Research Council via the UKRI guarantee scheme.

Mr Yuchen Liu
PhD student
​2023 start
​@

I work on the development of the Bayesian data pipeline for the sky-averaged 21-cm cosmology experiment REACH. In particular, I focus on the stage of foreground mitigation in the 21-cm signal detection. My research interests in general span from computational aspects to observations of 21-cm cosmology. Before starting the PhD, I had research experience in understanding the impact of reionization on the 1D power spectrum of Lyman-alpha forest. The work aimed to avoid computationally expensive simulations to marginalize the reionization over cosmological information by using an analytic prescription.

Mr Joe Pattison
PhD student
​2022 start
@

My work at the Cavendish, funded by the STFC, focuses on Bayesian analysis and theory 21cm cosmology for the investigation of the epoch of reionisation. Prior to starting my PhD, I completed an integrated master’s degree at UCL, where my thesis focused on comparing dust mapping methods in nearby galaxies to assess where and when the methods would disagree with one another.

Mr Jiten Dhandha
PhD student
​2022 start
@

I am an astrophysics graduate from the University of Manchester, starting my PhD under the funding of the Boustany Foundation and Cambridge Trust at the Institute of Astronomy. I have some past experience in modeling the 21cm global signal as it relates to CMB spectral distortions in exotic physics scenarios, and also with 3D hydrodynamical simulations of star-forming molecular clouds. As part of my PhD, I intend to work on improving simulations of the 21cm signal, particularly the re-ionization model, and how it could be improved with suggestions from the new JWST results.

Mr Kaan Artuc
PhD student
​2022 start
@

I received my master’s degree in CDT Connected Electronic and Photonic Systems program joint between UCL and Cambridge. My PhD project is funded by Brookhaven National Laboratory in the US. I am currently working on the lander telescope project, LuSEE-Night, which aims to unveil the dark ages by detecting red shifted 21-cm hydrogen signal lying around 17MHz from the far side of the moon. The instrumentation is being designed and built in collaboration with NASA and LBNL. I am working on the spectrometer, including the RF front-end design. I will focus on the calibration techniques to overcome the challenges of detecting the signal buried in the galactic foreground.

Mr Christian Kirkham
PhD student
​2022 start
@

My work, funded by STFC, is on bayesian data analysis for 21-cm cosmology experiments, like REACH. Before coming to Cambridge, I was at Durham University using Gaia data to investigate the systematic bias in DR3 parallaxes and its effect of the calibration of the cosmological distance ladder. A secondary investigation involved using main-sequence fitting to UBV photometry of open cluster stars to determine whether the standard reddening law needs to be modified to include a distance dependence.

Mr Simon Pochinda
PhD student
​2021 start
@

I am a PhD student funded by the Cambridge Trust, the Isaac Newton Trust and the Cambridge STFC CDT in Data Intensive Science. I will be focusing on utilising radio data from REACH/HERA along with upcoming data from the James Webb Space Telescope to provide joint constraints on cosmological parameters from the epoch of re-ionization. Previous research includes my MSc thesis from the University of Copenhagen. There I worked on developing techniques to model spectral energy distributions of high redshift dusty star forming galaxies from UV-optical data by imposing energy balance.
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Mr Oscar Sage David O’Hara 
PhD student
​2021 start
@

Funded in partnership between The University of Cambridge, The National Physics Laboratory and the European Space Agency. This collaborative project focuses on the development of a high sensitivity Electro-Optic antenna system alongside associated physics-motivated computational models aimed to classify electromagnetic emission in an environment with an extremely low S/N ratio. Before undertaking my PhD at Cambridge, I had research experience in the Very Low-Frequency Monitoring of the Earth's Ionosphere and the Impacts of Solar Flares.
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Mx Emma Shen
PhD student
​2021 start
@

I work on data analysis and modelling of foreground in global 21-cm experiments (e.g. REACH). The goal is to compensate for the effects using an advance nested sampler, PolyChord, based on Bayesian techniques. I have done some work on quantifying and analysing the chromatic ionospheric effects for my master’s project. The project is jointly funded by Cambridge Trust and the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.

Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones
PhD student
​2020 start
@   arXiv

My PhD project, funded by STFC, centres around providing a bridge between the experimentalists, data analysts, and theoreticians currently working on 21cm radio cosmology in Cambridge. In practise this means examining the results of the REACH and HERA experiments in light of various theoretical models that have been proposed for the 21cm emission signal. ​

Mr Kilian Scheutwinkel
PhD student
2020 start
@

My PhD project, funded by the Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, is in data analysis of the 21-cm signal using the cosmological experiments REACH and HERA. To achieve a successful detection of the aforementioned signal, I will use advanced bayesian techniques for signal extraction but will also consider alternative approaches by using machine learning algorithms. Before joining Cambridge, I had research experience in Spectroscopy and Photometry. For my M.Sc., I studied the chemical evolution of metal-poor stars within the Globular Cluster M30 by analyzing relative abundance trends and patterns. Furthermore, I gained computational experience by simulating the ionospheric composition of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Additionally, I used basic photometry to derive comet parameters.

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Past group members
(and their follow-on positions)

 Dr Edgar Colin-Beltran, Research fellow INOAE, Mexico (2013-2015) - Design of LPD antennas for the SKA MFAA instrument - Researcher at INOAE
Dr Jens Abraham, Research assistant (2015-2017) - Modelling and characterisation of SKA1-LOW antennas, LNAs and arrays - Researcher at 3D Radar
Mr Nicholas Fagnoni, PhD student (2015-2021) - Electromagnetic modelling and design of the HERA front-end system - Research engineer at Airbus
Dr Hardie Pienaar, PDRA (2017-2018) - Design of SKALA4, SKA1-LOW array design, UAV measurements - Researcher at Reutech
Dr Christos Kolitsidas, visiting student (KTH Stockholm - 2017) - Chromatic effects in Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Researcher at Ericsson
Dr Nausika Memeletzoglou, visiting student (UC3M Madrid - 2019) - Metasurface ground planes for radio cosmology - Researcher at Sener
Mr Shijie Sun, visiting researcher (CAS Beijing - 2020) - Receiver calibration for Global 21-cm cosmology experiments - Research engineer at CAS
Dr Ergin Dinc, PDRA (2019-2021) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Research engineer at Isotropic Systems
Dr Syed Bukhari, PDRA (2019-2022) - Surface Wave launcher design for ultra fast digital communications - Data Scientist at Capgemini
Mr Nicholas Leherter, MPhil (2020-2022) - Measurements of low level EM emissions - Research engineer at Graphcore
Dr Alec Josaitis, PhD student (2018-2022) - Commissioning and characterisation of HERA - High frequency trading at Jump Trading
Mr Zijie Yu, visiting student (CAS Beijing - 2022-2023) - Transient science with AMI and e-Merlin - PhD at CAS

Cambridge researchers ​collaborating with the group

Prof. Roberto Maiolino (Professor) - Galaxy evolution
Dr. Sandro Tacchella (Lecturer) - Galaxy evolution
Prof. Richard G McMahon (Professor) - SKA
Dr. Paul Calleja (HPCS director) - SKA
Dr. Will Handley (Royal Society University Research Fellow) - REACH
{co-supervisor of Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Kilian Scheutwinkel and Mr Sam Leeney}
Dr Anastasia Fialkov (Professor at the Institute of Astronomy) - REACH, HERA
​{co-supervisor of Mr Thomas Gessey-Jones, Mr Simon Pochinda and Mx Emma Shen}
Prof Mike Payne (Head of Cavendish Theory of Condensed Matter Group) - Ultra fast digital communications
Prof Richard Penty (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications
Dr Michael Crisp (Engineering Department) - Ultra fast digital communications

Major international collaborations

Our current major collaborations include:

Research in Radio-astronomy / cosmology

Prof Aaron Parsons and Dr David DeBoer (UC Berkley, US) - HERA
Prof Jackie Hewitt (MIT, US) - ​HERA
Prof Kris Zarb Adami (Malta university, Malta, and Oxford university, UK) - SKA, REACH
Prof Kavilian Moodley (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa) - HIRAX
Prof Rennan Barkana (Princeton university, US and Tel Aviv university, Israel) - 21-cm theory 

Research in Technology

Prof Christophe Craeye (UcL Belgium) - Array design, EM modelling, Array calibration
Prof Dirk de Villiers (Stellenbosch university, South Africa) - Antenna design, REACH experiment
Prof Anthony K Brown (QMUL, UK) - SKA, Array calibration and EM modelling
Prof Kevin Weatherill (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors
Prof Stuart Adams (Durham university, UK) - EM measurements - Rydberg sensors

Recent Collaborations with Industry

Cambridge Consultants Ltd. - Radio antennas and low noise amplifiers
National Physics Laboratory (Prof Tian Loh) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions
BT Labs - Ultra fast Surface Wave Communications
European Space Agency (Dr Johannes Wolf) - Measurements of low-levels of EM emissions