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Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya
Geoffrey O Okeng’o is a South African- trained Kenyan physicist with a Ph.D. in Physics (Theoretical Cosmology). He was born on 17th April 1984 in Kisii, Nyanza Province, Western Kenya, and his love for Physics and Maths began at a nascent age when he took interest in solving Maths and Science problems for other kids while in primary school. He passed to join secondary school where he studied Maths and all sciences: Biology, Chemistry and Physics, topping in class. In 2003, he got admitted to pursue a 4-year BSc Physics degree at University of Nairobi-Kenya, graduating in September 2007 with Honors majoring in Theoretical Physics. In 2008, he won a scholarship to join the National Astrophysics and Space Science Honors Program (NASSP) at the University of Capetown (UCT), South Africa. While at UCT, he won a Square Kilometer Array Africa scholarship for MSc at University of Western Cape (UWC) graduating Cum Laude March 2011. He then proceeded to pursue a Ph.D. at UWC, completing in 2015. He loves reading articles, deriving equations, writing codes, taking walks, cycling, jogging and writing science articles, traveling, socializing and gardening.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

The SKA Africa science extravaganza 2014

Geoffrey O. Okeng'o

7/12/2014

As the frenzy Xmas season beckons and the spirit of early celebrations begins to thaw this year's festive season's ice-berg, the beautiful city of Capetown is undoubtedly the place to be. On landing at the magnificent Capetown International airport, one is ushered in by an easy air of freshness and ambience that has been the trademark of the proud South African theme of Ubuntu- simply translated to mean “humanity for others”. Being over a month since my five-year stay in Capetown came to an end, returning to Capetown early this week to present at the Annual Square Kilometer Array (SKA) bursary conference, could have not come at a better time. Firstly, the excitement of “returning home” to meet my “family” of many young and experienced scientists who have shaped my scientific and social niche over the years is unbeatable. Secondly, being summer in Capetown- for those who know- nothing beats the opportunity to dress light and “step” out in the scorching sun and for those that partake, sipping away your favorite cold drink is just but a human right. Truth.

Today marks the fourth day of a 5-day annual scientific extravaganza underway at the Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (STIAS), organized by the South African SKA project. This year's conference according to Prof Leeuw Lerothodi of the School of Graduate Studies University of South Africa (UNISA), “brings together over 100 PhD, Msc and postdoctoral fellows, their supervisors, representatives from the 8 African countries including Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Ghana, Botswana, and distinguished international scientists to interact and present their work on the mega SKA project”. The SKA project comprises of international efforts to build what will the the world's largest radio telescope co-hosted by Africa and Australia. With a combined collecting area equal to a square kilometre single dish aperture, the SKA , once completed, will be an extremely powerful instrument that will monitor the sky with unprecedented accuracy achieving speeds up to a thousand times faster than any currently existing instrument.

According to Prof Justin Jonas, the SKA project associate director the idea of bidding to host the SKA in African soil was floated over 14 years ago by a senior member in the South African Department of Science and Technology, and culminated in the launch of the SKA Human Capital Development Programme in 2005 which until today has awarded over 600 grants to students from undergraduate to postdoctoral level. The SA SKA HCD programme has also seen the launch of an ambitious technician training programme for students from South Africa and her 8 SKA partner countries and also supported introduction of astronomy teaching in Kenya, Mozambique, Mauritius and Madagascar (see www.ska.ac.za).

With the first seven dishes of the MeerKAT telescope- a prototype of the SKA- complete and having produced the first radio images, Africa continues to attract huge international interest and has indeed demonstrated her remarkable scientific and engineering skills. Africa has not only shown the world her capability to build a world-class facility such as the SKA, but is also on track to becoming a destination of choice for pioneering scientific discovery! The plane is on the runaway and ready for take off...
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