Supercomputers
Supercomputers are types of computers which work together to act quickly.
They are often called high-performance machines. This is because they are able to process data a million times faster than the best desktop computers.
Image Processing
When you use a large telescope, like the LT, you are collecting data. The image is actually a huge grid of numbers. This data comes back in a raw form.
Jan Eldridge
Early Life
Jan read and watched lots of science fiction when they were a child. She liked how the science was a part of the story. However, she didn't think about going to university until a career advisor suggested it.
Research Areas: Numerical Modelling, Stellar Evolution, Binary Stars
Wanda Díaz-Merced
Early Life
Wanda was born in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. She used to play games, pretending to fly a spacecraft to another galaxy. Wanda won a prize at a school science fair. This experience made her feel like she could pursue a career in science.
Wanda started to lose her sight when she was a teenager. She lost her sight completely while studying for a degree in physics at the University of Puerto Rico. Wanda decided to keep studying at university, although it was difficult. She repeated classes until she got her degree. It took her six years.
Research Areas: Sonification, Black Holes
"I have to study, study, study. I am very determined. If I can do it [science], anyone can."
Carlos Frenk
Early Life
Carlos was born in Mexico. He is the son of a German-Jewish immigrant father and a Mexican-Spanish mother. Half of Carlos’ family are musicians, the other half are doctors. Carlos was interested in maths and nature when he was young. He did not feel that music or medicine would suit him. Carlos has an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Mexico. He started off studying engineering. He switched to physics when he realised that he was more interested in “why things work?” than “how?”.
Year born: 1951
Research Areas: Supercomputer Simulations, Galaxy Formation
"Scientists are sceptics. But the main thing is you have to be a rebel, because otherwise you don’t contribute to new ideas."
Anna Scaife
Early Life
Anna grew up in Cheshire, UK. She has an undergraduate masters’ degree in Physics from the University of Bristol. Anna studied for a PhD in astrophysics at the University of Cambridge. There, she got hooked on astronomy. This was the first time she had the chance to work with a radio telescope.
Research Areas: Radio-Astronomy, Artificial Intelligence
"There are very few projects in science generally, not just in astrophysics, that have data sizes like the SKA [(Square Kilometre Array)]."
Alan Turing
Early Life
Alan was born in London, UK. From a young age he was interested in codes and ciphers and spent lots of time creating and solving puzzles. He studied mathematics at the University of Cambridge and got a PhD in mathematical logic from Princeton University.
Year born: 1912
Research Areas: Computer Programming, Artificial Intelligence
"May not machines carry out something which ought to be described as thinking but which is very different from what a man does?"
Dorothy Vaughan
Year born: 1910
Research Areas: Computer Programming
"I changed what I could, and what I couldn't, I endured."