DIGITAL EDITION
Over 200 students, supervisors, administrators and invited speakers gathered under the trees at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study for the traditional conference group photograph.
Meeting of minds S
KA SA’s brightest young minds, and the future of radio astronomy, are meeting in Stellenbosch this week. There was a moment when delegates had begun to wonder whether they would be holding a conference by candlelight, but fortunately within moments of everyone gathering in the auditorium, at Stias in Stellenbosch, the loadshedding ended and power was restored. Post graduate bursary holders, their supervisors, representatives from SKA SA and invited speakers will be spending the next few days sharing the incredible advancements and discoveries that their work is generating.
By LYNNE SMIT
To kick off the event, Professor Justin Jonas shared milestones achieved and targets surpassed over the past year. “We are building a telescope that is better than was promised,” he said. “We are seeing real results. This is not a prediction and not a promise: this is South Africa showing how to do things properly.” The results achieved so far are so good that they are “showing that we can build the SKA with fewer dishes than was initially thought,” he said adding that when excellent engineering and excellent science come together a project like this can become more cost effective.