Cosmic Rays to the SKA:
Radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory

Anna Scaife, Professor of Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Although now famous as home to the 76m Lovell Telescope, the earliest radio astronomy that took place on the site known today as Jodrell Bank Observatory was a search for the origin of mysterious high energy cosmic particles referred to as cosmic rays. In this talk I will describe the earliest cosmic ray experiments that took place at Jodrell Bank, how those cosmic ray detection techniques were developed over subsequent decades, and how they have influenced the design of the cosmic ray detectors currently being built at Jodrell Bank for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. Today, as host to the international headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array Organisation, radio astronomy at Jodrell Bank continues to grow and I will give an overview of the scientific ambitions for the SKA and some of the novel technologies involved.