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About

A. McGrath is a key figure in the development of next-generation astronomical facilities, with a primary research focus on the design and construction of large-scale, fully robotic telescopes for time-domain astronomy. Their major contribution lies in spearheading the New Robotic Telescope (NRT) project, an international collaboration to build a 4-meter-class fully robotic telescope at the Observatory of Roque de los Muchachos in La Palma, Spain. This ambitious instrument, building on the success of the 2-meter Liverpool Telescope, is designed to excel in rapid-response and time-domain science, autonomously reacting to transient events such as gamma-ray bursts detected by Swift. McGrath’s work has been instrumental in advancing the NRT from concept to detailed design, with their most-cited paper (2019) outlining the project’s initial vision. While the project is still under development, its potential impact is significant: upon completion, the NRT will be the largest fully robotic telescope in the world, dramatically expanding our capacity to capture fleeting cosmic phenomena. McGrath’s contributions are shaping the future of autonomous astronomical observation.