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Reaching for the Stars
The site decision by the international SKA consortium was welcomed by UCT as a
red-letter day in the development of science in South Africa. Astronomers at UCT
and across the country celebrated the outcome of the site bid and congratulated
Dr Bernie Fanaroff, head of the SKA South Africa project, on this achievement.
T
his is one of the biggest scientific research ventures
ever undertaken and it confirms that developing
nations can also be part of solving the big questions of
our day. It will bring scientists from all over the world
to South Africa (and to UCT in particular) and thus
greatly enhance not only South Africa's but also UCT's
international research collaboration.
Work on the South African SKA precursor array entered a
new and exciting phase in 2012 with the commissioning
of the seven-dish radio interferometer KAT-7. Across the
various science teams involved with the MeerKAT SKA
precursor array, the staff and postdoctoral research fellows
of UCT’s Astronomy Department in particular are actively
participating in the commissioning phase of KAT-7.
The department is also leading the early science enabled
by the KAT-7 array, exploring the unique capabilities that a
combination of the world's largest optical telescope – the
10 metre Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) – and
the SKA precursor offer in studying the universe.
Observations taken in 2012 with KAT-7 of the accreting
neutron star binary Circinus X-1, and the nearby galaxy
NGC3109, show the excellent potential of KAT-7 for long-
term monitoring of actively varying binary stars in the Milky
Way (Circinus X-1) and studying the extended emission from
nearby galaxies respectively. Both observations have been
accepted for publication in prestigious astronomy journals.
In 2012, the Department of Astronomy also welcomed
Professor Thomas Jarrett from the California Institute of
Technology, as the incoming DST/NRF SARChI Chair in
Astrophysics and Space Science. Professor Jarrett works
on the study of extragalactic large-scale structures, the
Zone of Avoidance, interacting galaxies, star formation
processes and galaxy evolution.
The research of Professor Jarrett dovetails with that of the DST/
NRF SKA Chair in Extragalactic Multi-wavelength Astronomy, a
position held by Professor Claude Carignan, who specialises in
the study of stellar and gas motions in galaxies through radio
and optical observations of nearby galaxies.
The number of postgraduate students in the Department
of Astronomy reached new heights in 2012: 15 PhD and
19 MSc students were registered for their postgraduate
research degrees in astronomy. These postgraduate
students are predominantly from South Africa (22), with
additional representation from amongst the SKA African
partner countries – Madagascar (four), Mauritius (two) –
and a range of other countries, including Uganda, Egypt,
Ethiopia, France, India and the USA.
Through support from the DST/NRF South African Research
Chairs Initiative, the National Astrophysics and Space
Science Programme (NASSP), the Youth in Science and
Engineering capacity development programme of the SKA
South Africa project, UCT’s Astronomy Department – often
jointly with the South African Astronomical Observatory –
is preparing the next generation of African astronomers
to take on leading roles in the scientific exploration of the
universe with SALT and the SKA.
The highest number of postgraduate research students in
astronomy at UCT to date graduated in 2012. Of the eight
students who graduated, four will continue their careers in
astrophysics abroad: one student was selected as a Rhodes
Scholar to pursue a DPhil at the University of Oxford, and
three have gone to the Netherlands (to embark on PhD
studies at the universities of Groningen and Nijmegen) and
will be jointly supervised by UCT faculty.
On average, approximately 80% of UCT’s astronomy
graduates continue to postgraduate studies and about
one-third go overseas after completing their UCT degree
(MSc or PhD) to continue their academic careers. It is
particularly heartening to see that many of them return to
South Africa to take up postdoctoral research fellowships
or even permanent academic positions.
Apart from the essential international experience, these
young researchers bring back new research collaborations
and networks to the South African astronomical
community. It clearly demonstrates the success of the
capacity-development programmes in astronomy that the
astronomical community in South Africa embarked on in
2003 (NASSP) and 2005 (SKA South Africa).
Dr Bernie Fanaroff