The signature, at ministerial level, of a treaty to establish the international SKA organisation took place earlier in March 2019. South Africa and seven other nations signed the treaty to build the SKA , a major development in the realisation of the world’s largest radio telescope. Already, facilities like the South African MeerKAT telescope in the Karoo, which will be … Read More
“Being a scientist isn’t just about knowing things – it’s about seeking knowledge and solving problems and finding answers, and it requires creativity, passion and tenacity.” It’s that kind of thinking that drives astrophysicist Palesa Nombula to devote her time to studying the stars. And it’s that kind of thinking that made her the perfect science interpreter to take part … Read More
Dear ilifu/IDIA Researchers, The ilifu Research Data Management and Open Science Working Group will be hosting an ilifu RDM Users’ Engagement Workshop on 29 March, 2019. The purpose of the workshop is to engage with users of the ilifu infrastructure to identify if current research practices aligns with the newly developed ilifu Research Data Management policy. The workshop further aims … Read More
When Chaka Mofokeng and Tekano Mbonani returned to Leseding Secondary High School in the Free State, they were greeted with a full house – more than 120 learners packed the hall to hear the two young astronomy researchers talk about their studies and career prospects, and the joys of astronomy and science. The two fast friends and former Leseding learners … Read More
MIGHTEE is one of the eight MeerKAT Large Survey projects (MLSPs) who are using the first observations with the MeerKAT radio telescope in the Northern Cape. There is a strong South African collaboration on MIGHTEE and this workshop was the first time the majority of those involved came together. With MeerKAT, radio astronomers are able to detect galaxy formation essentially … Read More
We are glad to welcome two new user support specialists for the users on the Ilifu Data Intensive Research Cloud facility. Dr. Jordan Collier and Mr. Dane Kennedy will be joining the IDIA team as Astronomy and Bioinformatics User Support specialists. Their roles will involve the provision of technical support to the astronomy and bioinformatics communities, and will be acting as … Read More
Dear Colleagues, We will be holding a meeting of the superMIGHTEE collaboration at Kruger Park 05 – 07 June 2019. SUPERMIGHTEE is a collaboration between the MeerKAT MIGHTEE project and colleagues at NCRA-TIFR in India to co-observe the MIGHTEE deep fields with the upgraded GMRT from 250-850 MHz. With interferometer baselines almost four times larger than MeerKAT, the uGMRT offers … Read More
Science Spaza is an initiative that brings fun science, technology, engineering, arts, maths and innovation news and activities to a network of science clubs across high schools in South Africa. IDIA is proud to have contributed content to two issues of Science Spaza, the science newspaper, already and we look forward to collaborating more in the future. The first issue … Read More
The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy at the University of the Western Cape is proud to announce that a new team member has joined us as a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Fangxia An. Dr. An will be working with IDIA Researcher Dr. Mattia Vaccari on the HELP-IDIA Panchromatic PrOject (HIPPO) on developing techniques to best use multiwavelength data for the … Read More
The University of the Western Cape (UWC), a partner of the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy, in their effort to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of Women and Girls in Science has honoured Associate Professor Carolina Ödman-Govender for her contribution to science in general, and astronomy in particular. The article celebrates five women at UWC who “are using cutting-edge … Read More
