About me

I am a Grant Research Fellow at the University of Turku, hosted in the Transients group by Rubina Kotak and Seppo Mattila. I am currently funded by a Turku University Foundation grant.

I completed my PhD in 2023 at the University of Warwick in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group, under the supervision of Danny Steeghs and Joseph Lyman. The core activities of my thesis were developing next-generation ML algorithms for transient discovery, classification, and characterisation, applied to the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) datastream - it can be read via the institutional repository. I remain a core team member of GOTO and survey builder.

Some key areas of scientific interest for me are:

• ML for transient discovery: Developing and optimizing deep learning techniques to accelerate the detection, classification, and follow-up of astronomical transients. This work aims to maximize both discovery rates and classification accuracy while minimizing response times.
• Interacting supernovae: what can observing the deaths of massive stars tell us about how they end their lives?
• Citizen science: how can we empower and enable volunteers to make highly-impactful discoveries - and what can we learn about the “human factor” in the process?

I am always keen to start new collaborations and projects on topics of interest, particularly those with interdisciplinary elements - please do get in touch!