After many years of planning, construction on the world's largest radio telescope is due to begin in the coming years. The SKA is an intergovernmental organisation, bringing together astronomers from around the world. While the SKA operational headquarters are based at Jodrell Bank, the telescopes will be built in Southern Africa and Western Australia. In advance of the SKA, South Africa built the precursor telescope MeerKAT, which itself is already the premier radio telescope worldwide. Our speaker will talk about the telescopes, and my ongoing work using data from MeerKAT, including describing the new discoveries made possible by this world-class telescope. Natasha will also discuss ongoing international efforts to use radio astronomy as a vehicle for development in African SKA partner countries.

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About the speaker: Natasha Maddox

I completed my undergraduate MSci degree in physics at the University of Victoria, and my PhD in astronomy at the University of Cambridge. The topic of my PhD thesis was near-infrared selection of luminous quasars, where I created a photometric redshift code to efficiently select quasar candidates for spectroscopic follow-up. 

I have held research positions in Germany, the Netherlands, and South Africa. My research now focuses on multi-wavelength observations of galaxies, with particular focus on adding data at radio wavelengths. I am a member of several MeerKAT Large Survey Programmes, and several SKA Science Working Groups.