Technique - (10) Radio radiometer design and calibration

Type: Experimental

Description: Design of ultra-low-noise radiometric receivers for global radio astronomy experiments (e.g., REACH) including noise-wave calibration, antenna design, and RFI mitigation for mK-precision sky-averaged measurements.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Barry Epoch of Reionisation Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Barry works on the detection of the 21-cm signal from the Epoch of Reionisation with the Murchison Widefield Array and, prospectively, SKA-Low. Her specialty is calibration systematics: she has shown how small errors in the sky and beam model propagate into spectral structure that mimics or swamps the cosmological signal, and has developed the diagnostic and mitigation framework that current MWA upper limits rest on. This is a measurement whose entire difficulty is instrumental. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the intellectual structure is identical to a hard magnetometry measurement: raw sensitivity is adequate, and everything depends on understanding correlated, instrument-induced systematics well enough to subtract them below the signal. Early-career PI (DECRA). Borderline astronomy inclusion, kept on the systematics/instrument criterion.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Benjamin Group @ UWMadison
Summary:

Studies the global structure of the Milky Way (bulge, bar, disk, spiral arms) using infrared and radio observations of stars and gas, and the evolution of galaxy groups via radio observations.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics (Cavendish Astrophysics) | Cavendish Radio Astronomy and Cosmology Group @ Cambridge
Summary:

de Lera Acedo heads the Cavendish Radio Astronomy and Cosmology group and is PI of the REACH experiment, a global 21-cm signal radiometer deployed in the Karoo desert, South Africa, targeting detection of the redshifted hydrogen signal from the Cosmic Dawn (zā‰ˆ7.5–28). He has a PDRA opening for 21-cm cosmology data analysis. Research spans novel antenna design, ultra-low-noise receiver calibration (achieving ~80 mK RMSE), Bayesian foreground modelling, and RFI mitigation. He also leads the CosmoCube space mission concept for lunar-orbit 21-cm observations and is active in SKA development and HERA. He is actively hiring postdocs (PDRA posting live in 2025).

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Hewitt Research Group (Radio Astronomy) @ MIT
Summary:

NON-PREFERRED (astronomy pivot, kept for review). Hewitt builds and operates low-frequency radio interferometers (HERA, MWA) to detect the redshifted 21-cm signal from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization; the sensors are large radio antenna arrays rather than quantum sensors, so this is a borderline astro-instrumentation inclusion.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Kemball Group @ UIUC
Summary:

Radio astronomer working on very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) and radio imaging instrumentation, including maser and stellar-envelope studies and computational methods for radio astronomy.

Department(s)/lab(s): Physics | Masui Synoptic Radio Lab @ MIT
Summary:

NON-PREFERRED (astronomy pivot, kept for review). Masui's Synoptic Radio Lab uses the CHIME telescope for hydrogen intensity mapping of large-scale structure and for detecting and localizing fast radio bursts as cosmological probes; work spans theory, data analysis, observation, and digital instrumentation, but the sensing elements are radio-frequency antennas/digital correlators rather than quantum sensors.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Stanimirovic Group @ UWMadison
Summary:

Studies the interstellar and intergalactic medium and galaxy evolution via radio observations of neutral hydrogen and molecular gas.

Department(s)/lab(s): School of Physics | Webster Astrophysics Group @ UMelb
Summary:

Webster works on the Epoch of Reionisation with the Murchison Widefield Array, where the science goal — detecting the redshifted 21-cm signal from the first stars — is a five-orders-of-magnitude foreground-subtraction and instrumental-calibration problem rather than an astrophysics problem. Her group's contributions are in foreground modelling, ionospheric and beam calibration, and the statistical detection of a signal buried far below the systematics floor; she also works on quasar accretion physics. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the methodological parallel is exact: like a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble measurement, a 21-cm detection lives or dies on the control of correlated systematics rather than on raw sensitivity. Borderline inclusion under the astronomy criterion, kept because the array and its calibration are the central object of study.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Wilcots Group @ UWMadison
Summary:

Studies the evolution of galaxies and galaxy groups (gas content, Magellanic-type spirals, radio AGN, intergalactic medium) primarily through radio observations.

Department(s)/lab(s): Astronomy | Wong Group @ UIUC
Summary:

Studies molecular gas and the interstellar medium in galaxies using radio and millimeter interferometry (e.g., ALMA, CARMA).