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CSIRO is excited to welcome Rebecca Wheadon to our Astronomy and Space Science team as Site Entity Leader for the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). Based in Perth, Rebecca will be focussing on coordinating site activities for the resident radio telescopes, and supporting the future development of the MRO -- located 800 kilometres north of Perth!

We first met Rebecca in 2010, when she was leading the Aurecon engineering team that partnered with CSIRO during the construction of our Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope at the MRO. The team from Aurecon continued their partnership with CSIRO and in 2019 they worked together to deliver the Australian infrastructure design for the SKA-Low telescope -- a massive parcel of work which has been reviewed and approved by an international panel of experts.

With construction of the SKA-Low telescope due to commence at the MRO in 2021, Rebecca's experience with the project and background in Infrastructure projects is going to be invaluable. Rebecca also has 15 years' management experience in the telco, education, and Defence industries, bringing vital expertise towards navigating the complexities of the construction project on the MRO towards realising the SKA – the world’s largest radio telescope!