Dr. Sarah Pearce

Dr. Sarah Pearce

Dr. Sarah Pearce joined SKAO in July 2021 as Director of the SKA-Low Telescope. There she leads a growing team in Australia preparing for deployment, commissioning, and operations of the world’s largest low-frequency telescope, to be built at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy. Observatory in Western Australia, on Wajarri Yamaji country. Before joining SKAO, Dr Pearce was with CSIRO for 10 years as the Deputy Director of CSIRO Space & Astronomy and was Acting CSIRO Chief Scientist from January 2021 until her move to SKAO. Dr Pearce led CSIRO’s engagement in the SKA and was Australia’s science representative on the negotiating team for the SKA Treaty. She also established CSIRO’s Space research program, as well as the cross-organisational Centre for Earth Observation.  Her previous roles included senior science advisor in the UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, and project manager of the UK’s computing for particle physics program. She has a PhD from the University of Leicester and an undergraduate degree in physics from the University of Oxford.  In 2020, Dr Pearce was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. She was also named NSW Business Woman of the Year, and Executive of the Year at the 2020 Australian Space Awards. Dr Pearce is a strong advocate for diversity in science and engineering and was selected as one of Science and Technology Australia’s Superstars of STEM.