Since its inception, IDIA has supported Honours, Master’s and PhD students and postdoctoral fellows at the IDIA partner universities through a dedicated scholarship programme. To date 8 Honours students (all at UP), 11 MSc students, 4 PhD students and 13 postdoctoral fellows have received funding through this scholarship programme. Supported students and postdoctoral fellows in the period 2020-2024 are listed below.
A number of the supported postdoctoral fellows are now appointed as staff members either in South Africa or at research institutes around the world in SKA partner countries. In 2024, IDIA started its ‘IDIA associate’ programme, where former postdoctoral fellows who remained closely involved in IDIA research and development could be nominated as IDIA associates. Formal approval for this association comes through the IDIA management team. There are currently two IDIA associates, Dr Glowacki and Dr Sekhar. This programme effectively creates a network of IDIA alumni.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Current 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 |
Current Students
PhD students
| Name | University |
|---|---|
| Lennart Heino | UCT |
| Fabio Luchsinger | UWC |
| Okkert Havenga | UCT |
| Fernando Ventura | UP |
| Theophilus Matsepane | UP |
Masters Students
| Name | University |
|---|---|
| Boikhutso Mabala | UWC |
| Heinrich van Deventer | UP |
| Stefro Millard | UP |
Graduated Students from IDIA Partner Universities
PhD students
| Name | University | Year | Where now? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Kerry Paterson | UCT | 2018 | Euclid Calibration Support Scientist (Germany) |
| Dr Emmanuel Ocran | UCT | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (South Korea) |
| Dr Takalani Marubini | UWC | 2021 | |
| Dr Julia Healy | UCT | 2021 | Support Scientist, UK SRC |
| Dr Nikki Pekeur | UCT | 2023 | Test Engineer (the Netherlands) |
| Dr Charissa Button | UP | 2024 | SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Dr Simon de Wet | UCT | 2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Denmark) |
| Dr Sambatra Rajohnson | UCT | 2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Italy) |
| Dr Thato Manamela | UP | 2025 | SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Dr Brandon Engelbrecht | UWC | 2025 | Software developer (industry) |
| Dr Alex Sivitilli | UCT | 2025 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK) |
| Dr Tariq Blecher | UP | 2025 | Data Scientist (SARAO) |
Masters Students
| Name | University | Year | Where now? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wathela Alhassan | UCT | 2018 | PhD student (Poland) |
| Modisha Tladi | UWC | 2019 | Senior Associate (Industry) |
| Narusha Isaacs | UWC | 2020 | PhD student (UWC), IDIA data analyst |
| Tristan Lambert | UCT | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Australia) |
| Kyle Harrison | UCT | 2020 | Data scientist (industry) |
| Solomon Kapfunde | UCT | 2021 | Library ICT (UWC) |
| Micaela Menegaldo | UP | 2021 | Software engineer (industry) |
| Xola Ndaliso | UWC | 2021 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Junaid Townsend | UWC | 2021 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Wanga Mulaudzi | UCT | 2021 | Data engineering consultant (industry) |
| Thato Manamela | UP | 2021 | PhD student (UP), Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Sriram Sankar | UCT | 2022 | PhD student (Australia) |
| Jacques Smulders | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Leon Mtshweni | UP | 2022 | Data scientist (industry) / UP PhD student |
| Shilpa Ranchod | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Aphiwe Bangiso | UCT | 2022 | Software developer (industry) |
| Timothy Roelf | UCT | 2022 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Robert Lees | UCT | 2022 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Mpendulo Sibiya | UWC | 2022 | Data analyst (SARAO) |
| Karina Santana | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Kabelo Malapane | UWC | 2022 | Machine learning scientist (industry) |
| Fernando Ventura | UP | 2023 | PhD student (UP) |
| Mosima Masipa | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Daniel Johnson | UCT | 2023 | PhD student (France) |
| Nathan Peters | UCT/UvA | 2023 | |
| Duncan Tilley | UP | 2023 | Software engineer (industry) |
| Chaka Mofokeng | UWC | 2023 | Cloud support engineer (industry) |
| Lwandile Gwebushe | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Nadia Steyn | UCT | 2023 | Software engineer (ICRAR, Australia) |
| Isaac Magolego | UP | 2023 | PhD Student (Wits) |
| Walter Silima | UWC | 2023 | IDIA Astronomy support scientist |
| Sumari Faul | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Moses Mlangeni | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Reikantseone Diretse | UCT | 2024 | Data analyst at IDIA |
| Tilman Oelgeschlager | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Jade Lindsay Petersen | UWC | 2024 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Henco Arlow | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Martin Shanobe | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Boaz Gi | UCT | 2024 | Software developer (industry) |
| Toivo Samuel Mabote | UP | 2024 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Mikhail de Villiers | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Koketso Mohale | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Andrew Firth | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Michaela van Zyl | UCT | 2025 | Visualisation Software Engineer (IDIA) |