Dr Hayley Bignall (Manly Astrophysics)
Hayley hails from regional South Australia, where the dark skies illuminated a path to professional astronomy via a first class honours degree in physics at the University of Adelaide, followed by a PhD in observational radio astronomy at the same institution. Sport provided some distractions along the way, as Hayley competed at national and international level in rowing, but never quite derailed her studies.
Following her PhD in 2003 Hayley moved to The Netherlands, working for five years at JIVE, the world's leading institute for high angular resolution studies in radio interferometry. There she pursued interferometric studies of some of the most compact radio quasars. In parallel she used information gleaned from interstellar scintillation to learn about both the radio sources themselves and the interstellar medium, which influences how they appear. These methods have provided the dominant technical threads in Hayley's professional life and will continue to be well exercised in her current appointment, which commenced on 1st May 2021. Hayley works flexible hours on a 50% appointment and is based in Perth. She hopes to visit Manly one day when the West Australian drawbridge is lowered.