Prof. Jessica Dempsey

Prof. Jessica Dempsey became director-general of the SKAO on 1 June 2026. She is a globally recognised radio astronomer and science leader, specialising in astronomical instrument and telescope design. She has built and operated astronomical telescopes on every continent, in some of the world’s most extreme environments. Previously, she served as director of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and deputy director of the East Asian Observatory and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawai'i.  

Her scientific fields have been varied as her instruments, evolving from Antarctic atmospheric site-testing, to wide-field surveys of diverse molecules in the Milky Way galaxy. She is a founding member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration which produced the first ever image of a black hole in 2019, for which she, along with the collaboration, received the Breakthrough Prize.  

Professor Dempsey was born in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, Australia in 1978, growing up there and in Adelaide, South Australia before undertaking both an Astrophysics and Theatre and Film degree at University of New South Wales in the late 1990s. For her Honours graduating project, she installed her first instrument at Amundsen-Scott base, Antarctica, making her the first Australian woman to work as a scientist at the geographic South Pole. She followed this by building a UV-optical telescope at South Pole to complete her PhD in 2004, graduating while wintering at the base for thirteen months running the ACBAR cosmic microwave background telescope for Berkeley University.  

Experiencing and witnessing systemic inequity in her field has led her to dedicate her career to championing greater and more equitable opportunity and experience for women and all underrepresented individuals in science. She is the world’s first Professor of Ethics in Astronomy at Radboud University, where she works to evolve a new paradigm for scientific ethics in our society. She is a passionate advocate for inclusive science, championing humanistic, equitable, community-led science and leadership transformation, with a deep commitment to inspiring future generations in science and innovation.