Small Telescope, Big Science: CGEM and the Origin of the Universe

The Canadian Galactic Emission Mapper (CGEM) is a new 4-metres single-dish radio telescope located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, near Penticton, BC, built to map the polarization of the galaxy we inhabit, the Milky Way. This new instrument has been designed with a clear objective in mind: to be useful in the search for gravitational radiation from the early Universe, the B-modes. Over the past four years, I have worked on CGEM's design and deployment, from hardware and control software to data analysis. In this talk, I will present a brief introduction to radio astronomy and cosmology and an overview of the CGEM experiment and its science goals. I will share some personal insights from my very early days in the team to the first maps we recently obtained. I will also outline future plans for the experiment, which we will be upgrading for the next few months.
 

Pedro Villalba-González (he/him) is a third year PhD student at the Observational Cosmology lab at UBC. He is a Rafael del Pino Excellence Scholar (2022-23), a La Caixa Foundation Fellow (2023-25), and a Michael Smith Fellow (2025-26). His research focuses on the design, deployment and, as of a few months ago, data analysis of a new radio telescope, the Canadian Galactic Emission Mapper (CGEM), which will help us search for gravitational radiation from the early Universe. In his free time, he enjoys record collecting, salsa dancing, and training for triathlons.