Dr. Ashley VanderLey completed her masters and PhD in astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park and her bachelor’s degree in astrophysics from Agnes Scott College. Upon completion of her PhD, she was a Research Fellow and an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Berger Time Domain Group at Harvard University. Dr. VanderLey’s research specialization is observational radio astronomy applied to some of the most explosive astrophysical transients in the Universe including supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and tidal disruption events of stars around supermassive black holes. Dr. VanderLey subsequently worked for three years as the Assistant Director of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Department at the John Templeton Foundation before joining the National Science Foundation in 2017. In the past eight years, she has worked extensively on issues related to spectrum management for scientific services and Dark Skies for optical and infrared ground-based astronomical observatories. Dr. VanderLey has served as the U.S. Head of Delegation on behalf of the State Department to the Radio Astronomy Working Party (7D) of the International Telecommunication Union and has served on multiple U.S. Delegations to regional and international meetings, including the World Radio Conferences in 2019 and 2023 and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.
