Rewley House
12 Nov 2025
7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Nijin Thykkathu, Space Researchers Group, RALSpace Department, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), set to become the world’s largest radio telescope, is one of the most ambitious scientific projects of our time.
Uniting 13 countries in a global effort, it is designed to drive transformational discoveries in astrophysics.
This talk will outline the SKA’s vision and scientific goals, from probing the origins of the universe to testing fundamental physics. It will also highlight the technical and computational challenges of developing this critical infrastructure, the role of the Science Data Processor, and how innovations in big data are shaping the path forward.
Speaker Biography
Nijin Thykkathu is an Astronomy-Oriented Software Developer in the Astrophysics group at STFC RAL Space, where he contributes to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project as part of the Science Data Processing (SDP) team.
Involved since the prototyping stage, he has helped develop core components of the system, including control systems, data processing pipelines, and APIs, while applying expertise in Python, C/C++, distributed databases, and containerized systems to support one of the world’s most advanced scientific computing infrastructures. He has also worked on other major astronomy projects, including WHT/WEAVE and VLT/MOONS.
Alongside his role at RAL Space, he is pursuing a DPhil in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, supervised by Prof. Matt Jarvis. His research focuses on measuring the radio luminosity function (RLF) from the MIGHTEE survey to study the evolution of star-forming galaxies and active galactic nuclei, complementing his technical contributions with scientific analysis that advances our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution.
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