Melanie Johnston-Hollitt

Professor Melanie Johnston-Hollitt is a radio astronomer whose career spans astrophysics, computer science, and big data. Johnston-Hollitt earned degrees in theoretical and experimental physics, mathematics, and computer science at the University of Adelaide, followed by a Bachelor of Science with honors in astrophysics and a doctorate in radio astronomy completed jointly with the University of Adelaide and the CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility. She continued her research at Leiden Observatory at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands as the inaugural LOFAR Fellow, joining George Miley's group to work on the design of the LOFAR telescope. This experience contributed to a career focused on building and governing major scientific instruments in radio astronomy.

Over a 20-year career, Johnston-Hollitt has contributed to the design, construction, operation, and governance of several international radio telescopes, including the Low Frequency Array in the Netherlands, the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia, and the Square Kilometre Array, which is hosted in Australia and South Africa. She was a founding member of the Board of Directors for the Square Kilometre Array Organisation, working on international governance and the scientific and technical aspects of the telescope, and led the Science Analysis Pipeline design for the project. Johnston-Hollitt was appointed by the SKAO as founding co-chair of the SKA Cosmic Magnetism Science Working Group, where she defined early requirements associated with cosmic magnetism and edited the magnetism sections of the SKA Science Case.

Johnston-Hollitt is the immediate past director of the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope, having spent nine years involved in the project, including six years on the international executive board—four years as board chair—and three years as MWA Director. During her time as chair, she oversaw the expansion of the MWA project from 11 research organizations across three countries with 112 individual researchers to 21 organizations across six countries with 270 researchers. As MWA Director, she managed the third phase of the project, which included the design and funding for the new MWAX correlator, a GPU-based compute system.

Johnston-Hollitt's primary research interests include cosmic magnetism and observations of galaxy clusters, primarily through radio telescopes. Her work also explores the intersection of radio astronomy, signal and image processing, and big data analytics. These next-generation instruments generate massive quantities of data, requiring innovative technologies to extract scientific value. Johnston-Hollitt has authored over 230 publications, and her work has been cited more than 19,000 times.

Johnston-Hollitt was appointed Director of the Curtin Institute for Data Science, leading a multidisciplinary team of data scientists. She has served on the Editorial Board of Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, including a term as Editor-in-Chief. Johnston-Hollitt is an active member of the International Astronomical Union, serving on the Organizing Committee of Commission B4 Radio Astronomy and as a member of multiple divisions spanning facilities, data science, galaxies, and cosmology. She is a keynote speaker on topics including physics, data science, and the future of technology, translating complex scientific concepts for audiences in the big data era.