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About

Helen Jermak is an astronomer and instrumentation specialist whose research sits at the intersection of observational astronomy, robotic telescope development, and time-domain science. She is perhaps best known for her work on cometary activity, particularly her study of comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko during its perihelion passage, published in 2016 and accumulating 26 citations. That work demonstrated the power of robotic telescopes in capturing fleeting astronomical events that conventional observing schedules would miss — a theme central to her broader research agenda. Jermak has been a key contributor to the New Robotic Telescope (NRT) project, an ambitious international collaboration to construct a 4-metre fully robotic facility at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma, Spain. Through multiple progress reports and technical papers, she has helped advance the case for next-generation autonomous observing infrastructure. Her more recent work extends into machine learning applications for astronomy, including a novel AI-driven method for real-time nighttime cloud detection and prediction using all-sky cameras — a practical innovation that directly improves the operational efficiency of ground-based robotic telescopes. Across her career, Jermak exemplifies how modern astronomy increasingly depends on smart automation and adaptive observing strategies.