The 14th SARAO post-grad scholarship conference takes place in Durban

The Human Capital Development (HCD) programme at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) hosted their 14th Postgraduate Scholarship Conference this past December in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, attended by more than 220 participants.

The conference aims to bring together SARAO-supported postdoctoral fellows, postgraduate students, supervisors, radio astronomy scientists and engineers in Africa, and from elsewhere in the world, to network with each other and develop an interactive community around the SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT, the SKA in Africa, and other radio astronomy initiatives. SARAO has been managing an HCD programme since 2005, and to date the programme has provided funding to nearly 1168 undergraduate and postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, university academics, as well as students studying to be technicians and artisans.

In addition, the conference provides an opportunity for the postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows to share their research with the community, and with each other, and to provide them with important experience in presenting their work.

The conference, which has been held annually since 2006, has also been instrumental in demonstrating to the rest of the world Africa’s competence in radio astronomy research, and every year new international collaborations and partnerships are formed as a result, and new international researchers are motivated to come and work in Africa, either as visiting professors, or as full-time academics and Research Chairs.

By SARAO

Delegates at the 14th Postgraduate Scholarship Conference held by the SARAO Human Capital Development Programme in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Credit: SARAO