ABOUT ME
I am a 3rd year PhD candidate at the University of Toronto in the department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, currently co-supervised by Prof. Juan Mena-Parra and Prof. Maria Drout. I received my bachelors degree in honours physics at McGill University where I completed my undergraduate thesis under the supervision of Vicky Kaspi. Prior to starting my PhD, I spent a year working within the CHIME/FRB collaboration under the supervision of Vicky Kaspi and Kiyoshi Masui.
Outside of academia I love to travel, go on road trips and camp! A life goal of mine is to visit as many radio telescope in the world as I can and collect a collectors patch from every national park in Canada and the USA. If you’re curious about my progress, you can checkout my photos page.
My Research
Broadly speaking, I am interested in everything to do with radio astronomy. My background is in radio instrumentation and I’ve played a major role in commissioning the CHIME/FRB outrigger telescopes. The CHIME/FRB Outriggers are a network of radio telescopes spanning continental North-America, currently pioneering the field of wide-field, transient very-long-baseline-interferometry (VLBI). Over the past few years, I’ve developed an intense interest in continuum VLBI imaging to study fast radio bursts, core-collapse supernovae and the compact objects they leave behind.
For a list of my recent publications, see the link to my NASA/ADS profile or a list of highlighted results below. Additionally, I’m always looking for new avenues to collaborate! If you’re in need of help with reducing VLBI observations, or would like to collaborate on any of the topics I’ve discussed above, feel free to contact me.
Radio Instrumentation
Fast Radio Bursts
Supernovae
Persistent Radio Sources
VLBI
Radio Imaging
My Publications
Highlighted Results
[4] Lazda, M. + 15 co-authors (2026). VLBI Observations of SN 2012au Reveal a Compact Radio Source a Decade Post Explosion. Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. arXiv:2601.06278.
[3] The CHIME/FRB Collaboration + 85 co-authors including Lazda, M. (2025). FRB 20250316A: A Brilliant and
Nearby One‑off Fast Radio Burst Localized to 13 pc Precision. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 989L, 48. arXiv:2506.19006.
[2] The CHIME/FRB Collaboration + 64 co‑authors including Lazda, M. (2025). A Catalog of Local Universe Fast Ra‑
dio Bursts from CHIME/FRB and the KKO. The Astrophysical Journal Supplemental Series, 280S, 6. arXiv:2502.11217.
[1] Lanman, A., Andrew, A., Lazda, M. + 43 co‑authors (2024). CHIME/FRB Outriggers: KKO Station System and
Commissioning Results. The Astrophysical Journal 168, 87. arXiv:2403.05631.