Dr. Joseph McMullin is the Programme Director for the SKA Obseratory. He received his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Maryland in 1994. Since then, his career has been dedicated to the development and enhancement of new astronomical facilities. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist with the National Solar Observatory serving as the Project Manager and Deputy Director for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. He worked at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory on the commissioning of the Submillimeter Telescope Observatory. He worked at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory for fifteen years in different capacities, including supporting & leading the development of a data analysis package for NRAO instruments, serving as the the Systems Integration Lead for the Atacama Large (sub)Millimeter Array in Chile and leading the Science Support/Commissioning group for the Very Large Array

Talk: TARDIS: Time and Relative Dimensions in SKA

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be a continent spanning observatory designed to enable astrophysical research across the breadth of existing frontiers in knowledge.
When fully realised, this international observatory, strongly supported by the UK, will be the largest and most sensitive of its kind.

This talk focuses on the underlying scientific drivers for such a facility, the key technologies required and the resulting engineering design that arises.

We further reflect on the connection between the SKA’s seemingly abstract technologies and the remote astronomical objects under study with our terrestrial experience.