Nzimande champions African involvement at historic astronomical sciences assembly

Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande used his keynote address at the International Astronomical Union General Assembly (IAU) on Tuesday to highlight the need to broaden the participation of Africa in astronomical sciences.

For the first time in its 105-year history, the IAU General Assembly 2024 is taking place in Africa from August 6-15. More than 2 000 professional astronomers from 82 countries are gathering in Cape Town for the world’s largest international meeting of astronomers.

The event will host astronaut Dr Sian Proctor, mission pilot for the first all-civilian orbital mission, Inspiration, as well as the first African-American woman to pilot a spacecraft and the first African-American commercial astronaut.

Nzimande said indigenous astronomy continued to be a major part of the government’s astronomy programmes and it was pleasing that the conference would showcase the Cosmic Echoes, a Shared Sky Indigenous Art exhibition.

“It was really with the advent of democracy in 1994 that South African astronomy experienced major leaps on a number of fronts. During the democratic era, two major international telescopes were set up in South Africa, which include the 10m Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) in Sutherland, the largest optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Then there is the MeerKAT telescope in Carnarvon, a precursor to the SKA project. The MeerKAT is another amazing achievement on the global science stage, and we wish to thank our international partners – Germany, Italy and China – for their contribution to this project.

“We also have a growing gamma-ray astronomy community that actively participates in the High-Energy Stereoscopic (Hess) telescope located in Namibia.

“All these strategic interventions have enabled South Africa to exponentially increase the number of astronomers from 60 (only five of them were radio astronomers) to about 300 in the last 30 years,” he said.

Nzimande said a key commitment of the 7th administration was to ensure empowerment of Africa with high-speed research networks, computational technology, and cloud infrastructure in preparing the continent for the challenges and opportunities of 21st century astronomy.

“If we are to promote and secure citizen support for astronomy, it is of course our duty to link its value and purposes to the lives of local people.

First, we have a duty to explain the link between cosmic origins and the human story. This requires us to broaden the base of science engagements across all parts of society, particularly the most marginalised communities.

“For the social legitimacy and sustainability of African astronomy, we recognise how crucial human development is to ensure the next generation of technical, engineering, basic and applied scientific skills underpin expansion of our infrastructure.”

Cape Times