Sean Dougherty is a Canadian astrophysicist who has been involved in a large number of
radio astronomical facilities, both Canadian and international.
Dougherty obtained a degree in mathematics and physics from the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
in 1983, and after that he pursued a doctorate in astrophysics at the
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1993.
Dougherty has more than 20 years of expertise in radio astronomy, managing and representing Canadian contributions to international radio astronomical facilities, and also research and development projects.
Dougherty has also led the construction and delivery of the WIDAR
correlator to the
Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA). He also led an international consortium that designed the correlator (Central Signal Processor) of the
Square Kilometre Array
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKA ...
(SKA) Phase 1 mid-frequency telescope (SKA1-Mid).
Dougherty was selected for the position of
ALMA
Alma or ALMA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Alma'' (film), a 2009 Spanish short animated film
* ''Alma'' (Oswald de Andrade novel), 1922
* ''Alma'' (Le Clézio novel), 2017
* ''Alma'' (play), a 1996 drama by Joshua Sobol about Alma ...
Director in July 2017 for a five year period, starting February 21, 2018.
Dougherty was previously the director of the
Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO), the national facility for radio astronomy of Canada. DRAO is administrated by the
NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics. He was a member of the ALMA Board representing the North American executive for four years, and has been the president for the ALMA Budget Committee for the last two years.
References
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Canadian astrophysicists
Alumni of the University of Nottingham
University of Calgary alumni
Radio astronomers
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