Post-doctoral researchers

PRESS RELEASE! IDIA helps UP-led astronomy research team to explore the formation of giant radio galaxies

Using the supercomputing power provided by IDIA facilities and groundbreaking observations from new-generation radio telescopes such as MeerKAT, an international research team, led by postdoctoral fellow Dr. Gourab Giri and other researchers at the University of Pretoria (UP), has made a breakthrough in understanding the formation and evolution of giant radio galaxies. These cosmic behemoths, resembling massive fountains of superheated … Read More

The unusual structure of the Spiderweb Galaxy

Galaxy formation and evolution is a fascinating topic. Astronomers don’t know exactly how galaxies form. Large galaxies are often home to hundreds of billions of stars, but when a mega galaxy is observed at a fraction of the age of the universe, astronomers still wonder how it is possible that such mega structures form in such a short amount of … Read More

New analysis of more than 2000 Galaxies with MeerKAT

Using early science data for the MIGHTEE project on the MeerKAT radio telescope, a researcher at the University of the Western Cape – with collaborators from eight countries, including four other South African Institutions – has analysed over 2000 galaxies, growing our understanding of the evolution of galaxies over cosmic time. Dr Fangxia An – a postdoctoral researcher at IDIA … Read More

Bioinformatics workshop hosted on ilifu

An initiative by Dr. Ryan Daniels at the Forensic DNA laboratory in the Department of Biotechnology at the University of the Western Cape, this month-long workshop takes the participants from the basics of using Unix, the most common computer platform for science, to characterising ancestry with DNA data using cloud computing platforms and software containerisation. The diversity of topics of … Read More

Growing IDIA During the Lockdown

We are excited to announce that we are once again joined by a new postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Sthabile Kolwa, who will be based at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Kolwa will be working on the MIGHTEE project on research into galaxy evolution. Dr. Kolwa joins us from the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in Germany. Dr. Kolwa joined the ESO … Read More

Solved for X! UP IDIA team part of research that solves mystery of X-shaped radio galaxies with MeerKAT telescope

This study was carried out by a team from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), the (US) National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the University of Pretoria, and Rhodes University. The results will be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Dr Kshitij Thorat, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pretoria and second author of the paper, explained: … Read More

IDIA Welcomes New Postdoc

We are excited to announce that we will be joined by a new postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Francesco Cavallaro, who will be based at the University of Cape Town. Dr. Cavallaro will be working with the ThunderKAT, MIGHTEE and MeerLICHT projects on research into stellar radio emission. Dr. Cavallaro joins us from Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Catania, Sicily, … Read More

New UP Postdoctoral Fellow Joins IDIA

We are excited once again to announce that IDIA is proud to welcome a new Postdoctoral Fellow who will be joining the University of Pretoria. Since joining the partnership in 2018, the University of Pretoria has grown its research, researchers and science in the IDIA-supported project “Artificial Intelligence enhanced wide-field VLBI surveys: precursor science to the full SKA”. Dr. Jack … Read More

superMIGHTEE Workshop held at Kruger National Park

Astronomers from India and South Africa descended upon the Kruger National Park to kick off the superMIGHTEE Workshop from 05 – 07 June 2019. superMIGHTEE is the joint exploration of the Deep Sky with uGMRT and MeerKAT, and evolved from a series of joint workshops co-sponsored by India’s Department of Science and Technology and South Africa’s National Research Foundation bilateral, … Read More

New Postdoctoral Fellow Joins IDIA

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy welcomes Dr. Matt Prescott, our new postdoctoral researcher, based at University of the Western Cape. Dr. Matt Prescott joins us under joint Fellowship between the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy and the Centre for Radio Cosmology at theUniversity of the Western Cape. He shall be under the guidance of both Prof. Mario Santos and Prof. Russ Taylor. … Read More