Sub-Saharan Africa Astronomy Summer School
Galaxies, Extrasolar planets and Stellar physics: Gazing into the deep space, searching for new worlds, an insights into stellar interior physics.
6 – 17 September 2021
The ongoing activities of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) telescope have accelerated the development of astronomy research on the African continent especially in the field of galactic studies. These activities are no longer concentrated in South Africa only, but have also spread to the Sub-Saharan African region. Furthermore, space missions such as NASA’s Kepler and NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) have further enhanced the development of other astronomy research fields, mainly exoplanet and stellar physics exploration. The future of these research areas is expected to become even brighter with the magnificent observations expected from ESA’s PLATO (PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission planned to be launched in 2026. A number of African universities from the Sub-Saharan African region have embraced the open access data from these space missions and SKA telescopes, striving to make essential contributions to these research science fields, hence, aiding our understanding of the universe.
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in conjunction with the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik (MPA), Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg(TLS), and Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) are organising a Sub-Saharan Africa Advanced Astronomy Summer School in Uganda focusing on three fields of scientific research, namely galaxies, extra-solar planet science, and stellar interior physics. The goal of the summer school is to invite experts to share the state-of-the-art techniques/methods currently employed in these scientific research areas. In addition, research areas such as exoplanet and stellar physics studies have strong synergies and therefore present opportunities for generating research ideas which cut across the two fields, thus creating avenues for networking and building substantial collaborations among researchers and students in these fields. Students and postdoc researchers will be given an opportunity to present their own research work in the form of posters.
The summer school is open to 30 participants, i.e., mainly MSc./PhD students, and early career postdoc researchers in physics, astronomy or astrophysics from the Sub-Saharan African region. BSc. students in their final year with prospects of pursuing careers in physics, astronomy or astrophysics will be considered. The summer school will be held in Uganda from September 6th – 17th, 2021.
