Dr. Ingrid Stairs

Biography

Ingrid Stairs is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia specializing in Astronomy and Astrophysics. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Honours Physics from McGill University in 1993, followed by a Master's degree and a Doctoral degree in Physics from Princeton University in 1995 and 1998, respectively. Stairs has held several academic positions at UBC, progressing from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor and then to Professor since 2012. Her research primarily focuses on radio astronomy, particularly the study of pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs). She is involved in large-scale pulsar surveys using major telescopes like the 305-m Arecibo Telescope and the 100-m Green Bank Telescope, aiming to understand pulsar populations and identify new binaries. Stairs is also interested in the long-term observational follow-up of rapidly rotating neutron stars, particularly in testing general relativity. Additionally, she is part of a team working on the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) aimed at detecting FRBs. Stairs has received several prestigious awards throughout her career, including the Royal Society Canada Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics in 2017 and the Canadian Astronomical Society Peter G. Martin award for mid-career achievement in the same year.

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Experience

Awards