Katherine Elder

Katherine Elder is a Graduate Associate and PhD Candidate in Astrophysics at Arizona State University (ASU), affiliated with the School of Earth and Space Exploration (SESE) and the Department of Physics. Her research focuses on astronomical instrumentation and 21-cm cosmology, particularly studying the Epoch of Reionization and Cosmic Dawn through radio observations. She holds a BSc in Physics (Magna Cum Laude) from Fresno State, with minors in Astronomy and Mathematics.

Education:

• PhD Candidate in Astrophysics, ASU (current)
• Bachelor of Science in Physics, Fresno State (2019)

Research Interests:

Katherine investigates instrumental effects on radio observations, including mutual coupling in antennas and calibration pipelines. Her work combines theoretical modeling (e.g., in FEKO and COMSOL) with observational analysis to improve radio telescope accuracy. She is a member of the Low Frequency Cosmology (LoCo) group and contributes to projects like the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA).

Awards:

• Best Talk Award at MWA Project Meeting (2024)

Teaching & Outreach:

As a Teaching Assistant at ASU, she led laboratory sections for Introduction to Astronomy. She also mentored undergraduates in the LoCo lab and participated in science communication at Fresno State’s Downing Planetarium. Katherine volunteers with Cal-Bridge to mentor undergraduates in research and graduate school preparation.

Labs & Teams:

She contributes to the LoCo lab (loco.lab.asu.edu), part of SESE’s broader radio astronomy group, and collaborates with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the OVRO-LWA telescope.