Detecting transient sources in the sky

Dr Cathryn Trott studied the distribution and structure of dark matter in galaxies prior to working in medical imaging physics. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital, she was involved in the estimation and detection of signals from nuclear medicine scanners and optimization of imaging protocols for task-based medical diagnosis and staging. Having returned to Australia and to astronomy, she now applies some of the statistical signal processing tools from medical imaging to design novel algorithms for detecting and classifying sources of variable radio emission.

Current position:

• CAASTRO Postdoctoral Research Fellow in slow transients algorithm development

Qualifications:

• BSc (Hons) in Physics, University of Melbourne (2001)
• PhD, University of Melbourne (2005)

Past appointments:

• Harvard Medical School (2006 – 2009)

Research interests include:

• Statistical signal processing;
• Signal estimation and detection theory;
• Gravitational lensing.