IDIA Executive
| Name | Role |
|---|---|
| Prof Roger Deane | Incoming Director: IDIA |
| Prof Patrick Woudt | Director (Interim): IDIA |
| Prof Robert Simmonds | Associate Director, New Technologies: IDIA |
| A/Prof Sally Macfarlane | Associate Director, Outreach and Development: IDIA |
| Jeremy Smith | ilifu Operations Manager: IDIA |
| Kechil Kirkham | Project Manager: IDIA |
| Nicky Walker | Administrative Manager: IDIA |
| Dr Lucia Marchetti | Director: UCT/IDIA VisLab |
| Prof Mattia Vaccari | eResearch Liaison IDIA, Director: eResearch UCT |
| Prof Russ Taylor | Director: CARTA |
Current Staff
| Name | Role | Starting Year |
|---|---|---|
| Prof Roger Deane | Incoming Director | 2026 |
| Dr David Aikema | Senior Technical Specialist | pre-2020 |
| Jeremi-Ernst Avenant | Senior Technical Specialist | pre-2020 |
| Dr Angus Comrie | Senior Visualisation Developer | pre-2020 |
| Mike Currin | Senior Technical Specialist | pre-2020 |
| Reikantseone Diretse | Data Analyst | 2023 |
| Marcin Glowacki | IDIA Associate | 2024 |
| Lisa Hendricks | Administrator | 2022 |
| Dane Kennedy | Senior Bioinformatics Support | pre-2020 |
| Kechil Kirkham | Project Manager | pre-2020 |
| Assoc Prof Sally Macfarlane | Associate Director, Development and Outreach | 2023 |
| Dr Lucia Marchetti | VisLab Director | 2024 |
| Adrianna Pińska | Visualisation Developer | pre-2020 |
| Srikrishna Sekhar | IDIA Associate | 2024 |
| Walter Silima | Data Analyst (2022 – 2023); Astronomy Support | 2024 |
| Prof Rob Simmonds | Associate Director, New Technology Initiatives | pre-2020 |
| Jeremy Smith | Operations Manager | pre-2020 |
| Prof Mattia Vaccari | eResearch Liaison | pre-2020 |
| Nicky Walker | Administration Manager | pre-2020 |
| Prof Patrick Woudt | Interim Director | 2024 |
| theophilus matsepane | Senior Systems Administrator | 2025 |
| Narusha Isaacs | IDIA / BRICS data analyst | 2025 |
Former Staff
| Name | Role | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Annastine Aranjo | IDIA Secretary | until 2020 |
| Dr Joe Bochenek | Data Scientist | until 2022 |
| Tinus Cloete | Senior Systems Administrator | 2023 – 2024 |
| Dr Jordan Collier | Senior Astronomy Support | until 2024 |
| Dr Bradley Frank | Associate Director, Astronomy Operations | until 2023 |
| Okkert Havenga | Data Analyst | 2022 – 2023 |
| Dr Jasper Horrell | Associate Director, Operations | until 2020 |
| Verena Ras | Administrator (UWC) | pre-2020 |
| Eslam Hussein | Data Scientist | until 2024 |
| Herbert Nguruwe | User Support (UWC) | pre-2020 |
| Prof Thomas Jarrett | Professor Astronomy; VisLab co-director | until 2024 |
| Assoc. Prof. Michelle Cluver | Associate Director, Development and Outreach | pre-2020 |
| Oarabile Moloko | Astronomy Support | 2021 – 2022 |
| Robin Hall | Senior Systems Administrator (UWC) | pre-2020 |
| Assoc Prof Carolina Ödman | Associate Director, Development and Outreach | until 2022 |
| Oarabile Hope Moloko | Junior Astronomy Support (UCT) | pre-2020 |
| Prof Russ Taylor | Director | until 2023 |
| Mfundo Zwane | Development and Outreach Administrator | until 2021 |
Senior Researchers
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Assoc. Prof. Sarah Blyth | UCT |
| Prof. Claude Carignan | UCT |
| Dr. Christopher Cleghorn | UP |
| Prof. Roger Deane | Wits |
| Prof. Thomas Jarrett | UCT |
| Prof. Renée Kraan-Korteweg | UCT |
| Assoc. Prof. Michelle Kuttel | UCT |
| Dr Michelle Lochner | UWC |
| Dr Edward Elson | UWC |
| Prof. Lerothodi Leeuw | UWC |
| Dr. Lucia Marchetti | UCT |
| Prof. Russ Taylor | UWC/UCT |
| Prof. Mario Santos | UWC |
| Prof. Rob Simmonds | UCT |
| Assoc. Prof. Mattia Vaccari | UWC |
| Prof. Patrick Woudt | UCT |
| Dr. Jack Radcliffe | UP |
| Dr. Kshitij Thorat | UP |
Postdoctoral Fellows
| Name | University | Start Year |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Luigi Barchiesi | UCT | 2023 |
| Dr Sushant Dutta | UCT | 2024 |
| Dr Suman Chatterjee | UWC | 2024 |
| Dr. Iniyan Natarajan | UP | |
| Dr. Saurabh Paul | UWC |
Former Postdoctoral Fellows
| Name | University | Period | Current position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Kshitij Thorat | UP | 2020 | Staff at UP |
| Dr Fangxia An | UWC | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (China) |
| Dr Marcin Glowacki | UWC | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK), IDIA associate |
| Dr Francesco Cavallaro | UCT | 2020 | Staff at INAF/Catania (Italy) |
| Dr Srikrishna Sekhar | UCT | 2020-2023 | Associate Scientist at NRAO, IDIA associate |
| Dr Matt Prescott | UWC | 2020-2022 | |
| Dr Amadeus Wild | UWC | 2023 | |
| Dr Tamirat Gogo | UWC | 2023 | |
| Dr Alex Sivitilli | UCT | 2023-2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK) |
| Dr Sthabile Kolwa | UCT | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Luke Chamandy | UCT/UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Jonathan Zwart | UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Zara Randriamanakoto | UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| A/Prof Sally Macfarlane | UCT | Pre-2020 | IDIA Assoc. Director: Development & Outreach |
~ In Loving Memory ~
PROFESSOR TOM JARRETT
IDIA Visualisation Laboratory co-director
The entire IDIA community was shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of Prof Thomas (Tom) Jarrett on 1 July 2024. Tom Jarrett arrived in Cape Town in 2012 to take up the position of the South African Research Chair (SARChI) in Astrophysics and Space Science at a time when the MeerKAT telescope was under construction. His tremendous expertise and recognised international leadership in the study of nearby galaxies at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths with 2MASS and WISE was a perfect match to the planned surveys of nearby galaxies and galaxy groups with MeerKAT in order to provide a comprehensive multi-wavelength view of galaxies and galaxy evolution in the nearby Universe. Tom played a key role in the upgrade of the Iziko Planetarium in Cape Town to an 8K Digital Dome – the first digital dome in South Africa. Tom was instrumental in the development of IDIA’s Visualisation Lab (VisLab) and he led the developments of immersive visual analytics of complex large data sets. For this he used the Iziko Planetarium for the visualisation of galaxies on the largest (dome-sized) scales through the DataToDome initiative, to the immersive Cobra display in the VisLab, and ultimately to the development of iDaVie at IDIA, the 3-dimensional virtual reality interface of the MeerKAT data cubes. Tom was an outstanding teacher who was exceptionally generous with his time towards postgraduate students and emerging researchers. All of the students and colleagues who worked closely with Tom attest to his care and support for his students and his love for astronomy. Tom took early retirement from UCT at the end of 2023, to take up a position as deputy director of the IRTF telescope in Hawaii and had just started that position in early 2024, whilst continuing to be involved in the IDIA VisLab. IDIA mourns the loss of a dear friend and a close colleague and conveys our heartfelt sympathies to all his family and friends.
The obituary for Tom can be seen here.
PROFESSOR CAROLINA ÖDMAN-GOVENDER
Associate Director Development and Outreach – IDIA
It is with deep sadness that we mark the passing of Carolina Ödman-Govender on 15 November 2022.
Carolina was the Associate Director of IDIA for Development and Outreach and a dear friend to all at IDIA. As Associate Director she created and lead numerous initiatives in public engagement in science, outreach to communities of young scholars and researchers, societal development from astronomy and big data, and mentoring of students and colleagues. Her outstanding contributions were recognised both nationally by the award of the 2020/2021 National Science and Technology Forum Award for Science and Communications, and internationally by the 2020 International Science Council award for “Science for Development”. Carolina’s talent, passion for her work, tremendous energy and enthusiasm for life left an indelible legacy at IDIA.
Carolina had been fighting cancer for several years. Despite her illness she remained a constant source of inspiration and encouragement to her colleagues at IDIA and all who knew her. Carolina was an extraordinary colleague and friend. She leaves a big hole at IDIA and in our hearts. She will be deeply missed and remembered with great affection.
Our hearts and condolences go out to her husband Kevin Govender, and her children Xavier and Cyprian.