Tara Murphy

Tara Murphy is an astrophysicist working in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney. She is a Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics. Her research focuses on detecting and studying transient and highly variable astrophysical phenomena with next generation radio telescopes. In particular, she is interested in developing and applying novel computer science techniques to data-intensive research. She leads an international team of researchers searching for variable and transient sources with the Murchison Widefield Array and the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescopes in Western Australia. Tara is also passionate about teaching and high school outreach. She has been a director of the National Computer Science School since 2004 and director of the NCSS Challenge, an online programming competition that has taught thousands of high school students how to code. In 2012 her work in scientific research and public outreach was recognised by the award of NSW Young Tall Poppy of the year and she also received an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning in 2010.