Celebrating our community: awards and honours

In this section we celebrate success and recognise colleagues, partners and members of the community who have received prestigious grants, awards and honours in recent months.

The MeerKAT telescope team has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2023 Group Achievement Award in recognition of its “spectacular advances in radio astronomy”. The citation reads: “As well as the extensive scientific output, MeerKAT has supported an intensive programme of human capital development in Africa, stress-tested the technology for the Square Kilometre Array and helped train the next generation of radio astronomers.”

The MeerKAT telescope team has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2023 Group Achievement Award in recognition of its “spectacular advances in radio astronomy”. The citation reads: “As well as the extensive scientific output, MeerKAT has supported an intensive programme of human capital development in Africa, stress-tested the technology for the Square Kilometre Array and helped train the next generation of radio astronomers.”

Credit: SARAO

The CHIME telescope team, was awarded the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering in recognition of CHIME’s science impact, particularly in fast radio burst detections. The award citation notes the team “proudly includes members of underrepresented groups in physics” and has “a progressive training environment for students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates”.

The CHIME telescope team, was awarded the Brockhouse Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering in recognition of CHIME’s science impact, particularly in fast radio burst detections. The award citation notes the team “proudly includes members of underrepresented groups in physics” and has “a progressive training environment for students, post-doctoral fellows and research associates”.

Credit: CHIME

Ugur Yilmaz, DevOps Engineer in the SKAO Software team, has been appointed as a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow for 2023. The SSI is dedicated to cultivating better, more sustainable software to enable world-class research.

Ugur Yilmaz, DevOps Engineer in the SKAO Software team, has been appointed as a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow for 2023. The SSI is dedicated to cultivating better, more sustainable software to enable world-class research.

Credit: Ugur Yilmaz

Prof. Françoise Combes, co-chair of the SKA Extragalactic Spectral Line Science Working Group, has been elected vice-president of the French Academy of Sciences for 2023-2024.

Prof. Françoise Combes, co-chair of the SKA Extragalactic Spectral Line Science Working Group, has been elected vice-president of the French Academy of Sciences for 2023-2024.

Credit: Francoise Combes

Prof. Yashwant Gupta, director of India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), was elected as a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, as well as being awarded the Indian Physics Association’s Shri Murli M. Chugani Memorial Award for Excellence in Applied Physics.

Prof. Yashwant Gupta, director of India’s National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), was elected as a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, as well as being awarded the Indian Physics Association’s Shri Murli M. Chugani Memorial Award for Excellence in Applied Physics.

Credit: Yashwant Gupta

Dr Zafiirah Hosenie has been awarded first prize in the 2022 Institute of Physics CPG Thesis Prize for her work applying machine learning techniques to the large datasets produced by the new generation of telescopes such as the SKA. Zafiirah’s PhD research was carried out at The University of Manchester as part of the DARA (Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy) Big Data project, and her algorithms have been deployed on both MeerKAT and the MeerLICHT optical telescope.

Dr Zafiirah Hosenie has been awarded first prize in the 2022 Institute of Physics CPG Thesis Prize for her work applying machine learning techniques to the large datasets produced by the new generation of telescopes such as the SKA. Zafiirah’s PhD research was carried out at The University of Manchester as part of the DARA (Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy) Big Data project, and her algorithms have been deployed on both MeerKAT and the MeerLICHT optical telescope.

Credit: Zafirah Hosenie

Prof. Nissim Kanekar, a member of the SKAO’s HI Galaxy Science Working Group, has been awarded the 2022 Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences for his pioneering detection of atomic hydrogen at cosmological distances. Prof. Kanekar is based at India’s NCRA and studies galaxies in an era in which stars were being formed at a maximum rate.

Prof. Nissim Kanekar, a member of the SKAO’s HI Galaxy Science Working Group, has been awarded the 2022 Infosys Prize in Physical Sciences for his pioneering detection of atomic hydrogen at cosmological distances. Prof. Kanekar is based at India’s NCRA and studies galaxies in an era in which stars were being formed at a maximum rate.

Credit: Prof. Nissim Kanekar

Prof. Yin-Zhe Ma, a member of the SKAO’s Epoch of Reionisation, Cosmology and HI Science Working Groups, was elected as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa for his distinguished contribution to the science and education of cosmology and radio astronomy.

Prof. Yin-Zhe Ma, a member of the SKAO’s Epoch of Reionisation, Cosmology and HI Science Working Groups, was elected as a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa for his distinguished contribution to the science and education of cosmology and radio astronomy.

Credit: Prof. Yin-Zhe Ma