Rate My Professor Danny Price

Dr Danny Price is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Curtin University within the Faculty of Science and Engineering, associated with the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA). He earned his DPhil in Astrophysics from the University of Oxford in 2013. Currently serving as Operations Scientist for the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO), Price previously held the role of Australian Project Scientist for Breakthrough Listen from 2019 to 2024, where he led technosignature searches using the Parkes Murriyang radio telescope, developing digital signal processing systems, data analysis pipelines, and science programs. Following his PhD, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on digital signal processing for radio astronomy. He advanced fast radio burst detection and localization through the UTMOST-2D upgrade of the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at Swinburne University. Price contributed to the Large Aperture Experiment to Detect the Dark Ages (LEDA), constructing a 256-antenna array in Owens Valley, California, to measure 21-cm signals from the early universe. His involvement in the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) has led to FPGA-based instruments deployed at Parkes (HIPSR), Owens Valley (LEDA), Medicina (BEST-2), and Tidbinbilla (TAMS) observatories.

Price's research focuses on radio astronomy instrumentation for technosignature detection, pulsars, fast radio bursts, and 21-cm cosmology. He has pioneered techniques to mitigate amplifier self-noise and frequency-dependent beam patterns in beamformed telescopes, enhancing global signal experiments. With over 5,400 citations, an h-index of 37, and 83 i10-index publications on Google Scholar, his key works include 'MWAX: A new correlator for the Murchison Widefield Array' (2023, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia), 'Beamforming approaches towards detecting the 21-cm global signal from Cosmic Dawn with radio array telescopes' (2022, PASA), 'Expanded Capability of the Breakthrough Listen Parkes Instrument' (2021), and a paper on noise parameter measurement in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (2022). He received the 2022 Western Australian Young Tall Poppy Science Award and Curtin STEM Award for research and outreach. Price engages in public lectures and committee roles advancing radio astronomy.