Top academic notches second NRF award
PROFESSOR Roy Maartens from UWC, whose name has become synonymous with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project and building the world’s largest radio telescope, has – for a second time – received a coveted A-rating at this year’s 2018 National Research Foundation Awards (NRF).
The awards celebrate South African research excellence, honouring only the top researchers in the country for their contributions to knowledge creation and dissemination.
Maartens, of UWC’s Astrophysics Group, says astronomy – and research in general – can lead to unforeseen and important technological advances, yet scientists do what they do because they’re curious about the universe.
“Investing in this curiosity is an investment in the knowledge and culture of all humanity, and can enrich society in ways we cannot even imagine.”
Maartens has held the SKA SARChI Research Chair in Cosmology since 2011. In 2002 he was the founding director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation in Portsmouth, which became one of the top cosmology research groups in the UK and Europe.
To date, he has produced over 200 papers in referred journals on cosmology, general relativity and related topics, and has mentored 30 post-doctoral candidates and supervised 17 PhD and 10 MSc graduates to completion.
He currently works on the science of very large galaxy surveys, and some of the biggest surveys will be conducted by the SKA.
The SKA is being built in South Africa and Australia, and will be the world’s largest astronomy experiment.
| Nicklaus Kruger UWC