image credits: credits: Daniëlle Futselaar/ASTRON

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration transients of intense, coherent radiation that are signposts of extreme astronomical environments. Despite 15 years of research, no conclusive consensus on the progenitor(s) of FRBs has been reached. While it is clear that some FRBs might be produced by magnetars, the diversity of FRB properties, behaviours, and locations implies that this is not the complete answer. Although there has been significant progress in localising FRBs to their hosts, we are still only scratching the surface in terms of the locations in which we can find FRBs. In this talk, I will give an outline of our current understanding of FRB host galaxies and their local surroundings, with a focus on VLBI observations of FRBs. 
 

Brief CV of Dr. Shivani Bhandari:

She was born and raised in New Delhi, India. She earned a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Communication Engineering from India before pursuing a PhD in Astrophysics at Swinburne University in Melbourne focussed on fast and slow radio transients. She also did her first postdoc in Australia at CSIRO in Sydney, where she got involved in FRB searches with ASKAP. Had a lot of fun working as a part of CRAFT team on FRB searches and their arcsecond localisation to host galaxies. She studied the first sample of ASKAP-localised FRBs and their hosts. After seven years of living in Australia, she relocated to the Netherlands to work with Jason Hessels. She is a Veni fellow there, working on milliarcsecond FRB localisation with the European VLBI Network, as well as low-frequency FRB investigations with LOFAR. She also received the renowned DECRA award from Australian research council and will be returning to Swinburne University for a five-year job in the fall.