Star Talk: CHIME – A digital radio telescope for mapping the Universe
Join us with Dr. Juan Mena Parra at 6:00pm on Friday, November 15th for our next Star Talk!✨
📍BA1220 (Bahen Centre) – 40 St. George Street
Talk Topic: ✧ Star Talk: CHIME – A digital radio telescope for mapping the Universe ✧
Abstract: In this talk, I will describe how recent technological and scientific advances not only changed the way in which we observe the Universe at radio wavelengths, but also enabled one of the most powerful instruments for cosmology and transient astrophysics: the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). CHIME, a novel, digitally-driven telescope, is conducting the largest-volume astronomical survey to date and detecting enigmatic fast radio bursts (FRBs) at unprecedented rates. This wealth of information is essential for advancing our understanding of dark energy, the mysterious force driving the Universe’s accelerated expansion, and for uncovering the origins of FRBs. I will also discuss how CHIME’s discoveries and innovative technology are motivating the development of new instruments designed to push the boundaries of cosmology and transient astrophysics.
Speaker Bio: Juan Mena-Parra develops novel instrumentation and experiments for observational cosmology and transient astrophysics. His research drives the development of modern and next-generation radio telescopes that require unprecedented levels of signal processing power to unlock their scientific potential, including the world’s largest radio correlator and the most powerful astrophysical radio transient detector. He also analyzes and interprets data from these instruments to advance our understanding of the Universe, from its expansion history to the nature of the radio transient sky. Juan studied Electronic Engineering at Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) and Honours Mathematics and Physics at McGill University. He completed his PhD in Physics at McGill in 2018, working in the McGill Cosmology Instrumentation Laboratory. Following his PhD, he was a Kavli Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research at MIT. In 2022, Juan joined the Dunlap Institute and the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor.
