Minister challenges students at sixth annual SKA SA Postgraduate Bursary Conference

Mrs Naledi Pandor, the Minister of Science and Technology, was the keynote speaker at the opening of the conference, which was held on the campus of Stellenbosch University. Here she is with MSc student Marisa Geyer of Stellenbosch University, the vice-rector and chancellor of Stellenbosch University, Prof Russel Botman, and MSc student Iniyan Natarajan of the University of Cape Town.

24 November 2011

With a challenge to produce exceptional research publications, and the hope that a Nobel Prize winner will come from the group of students being supported by the South African Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Project, Mrs Naledi Pandor, Minister of Science and Technology, opened the 6th SKA SA Postgraduate Bursary Conference, on Monday evening in Stellenbosch.

"I expect to see exceptional papers from the masters and doctoral students supported by our bursary programme; I expect nothing less," Mrs Pandor said to the more than 85 students and postdoctoral fellows who had gathered for the annual conference. "I will be asking the SKA SA project office to keep me and my department updated on how well you are doing."

Minister Pandor was the keynote speaker at the opening ceremony of the conference in the Wallenberg Centre on the campus of Stellenbosch University. The gathering was also addressed by Prof. Russel Botman, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of Stellenbosch University, Prof. Justin Jonas, Associate Director of the South African SKA Project, and Prof. Nithaya Chetty, Group Executive for Astronomy at the National Research Foundation (NRF).

The annual conference, now in its sixth year, provides the opportunity for the PhD and MSc students and postdoctoral fellows being funded by the South African SKA project to present their research and interact with one another, and leading academics. Representatives from South Africa's eight SKA partners - Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Zambia - are also part of the conference, as are leading radio astronomers from the Netherlands, Japan, France and the United Kingdom.

Reflecting on the value of the inter-university nature of the bursary conference, Mrs. Pandor said that "annual events like this cultivate a culture of knowledge sharing."

Minister Pandor highlighted the progress being made with MeerKAT, South Africa's SKA precursor radio telescope, which is being built in the Karoo region of the Northern Cape. She said that over 500 radio astronomers have already "booked" time to use MeerKAT once it is commissioned.

"We are proud that the SKA SA is well positioned to play a pathfinder role for a new generation of global-science partnerships," she said.

Mrs Pandor said that many positive initiatives are being undertaken in the SKA partner countries, as a result of the SKA SA project. These include the introduction of undergraduate astronomy courses at universities in all the partner states, and the initial work being done to construct the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Network.

However, the Minister commented that research of the future should not only focus on fundamental sciences and engineering, but also on the social and economic impact that projects like the SKA is having on the communities in which astronomy facilities are being built.

"The SKA Bursary Programme is boosting the number of highly skilled scientists and engineers produced for South Africa and Africa," said Prof. Russel Botman, who, in his welcoming address, thanked the Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and the South African SKA Project for the efforts being made to ensure that Africa becomes a global hub of astronomy.

In his address, Prof. Nithaya Chetty, said that a successful SKA bid would change the face of astronomy forever in South Africa. He expects that the project would not only lead to the production of quality international research outputs and publications, but will also lead to new discoveries, innovative new applications and quality human development.

According to Ms Kim de Boer, manager: human capital development of the South African SKA Project, the conference started off as a way in which the project team could review the research being done by the students that are being supported. "It has since transformed into a significant show case of South Africa's talent and progress in radio astronomy, and the relevant engineering disciplines," she said.

"The international guests who have attended over the years have all commented on the exceptionally high standard of radio astronomy research in Africa taking place, and the international level of the students' research and presentations."

"The conference, together with the interaction of the SA site bid and MeerKAT teams, has boosted our reputation internationally, and has helped to completely changed the world's perception of our abilities," she believes.

Since the inception of its bursary programme in 2005, the South African SKA Project has awarded more than 300 grants and bursaries to students and fellows from South Africa, other African countries and the rest of the world. The objective of the programme is to create significant capacity in the fields of radio astronomy, and the engineering disciplines relevant to radio astronomy.

To date 24 of the 43 PhD students supported, and 53 of the 83 MSc students supported by the project, have graduated - a significant contribution to a national objective of increasing the number of postgraduates, and the move towards the creation of a knowledge economy.