{"id":37493,"date":"2017-01-13T13:22:09","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T21:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=37493"},"modified":"2017-01-13T13:22:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T21:22:09","slug":"rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"squaremilearray\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I grew up in a Kenyan village with dark skies and vivid stars. We admired the sky and listened to stories about it told by the elders. There were few expectations that the children in our village would ever understand the sky\u2019s secrets as this was unimaginable at the time.<\/p>\n

I excelled at maths and science, eventually becoming a teacher in the subjects. Then came a Masters degree in Physics, followed by a second Masters through South Africa\u2019s Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. There the boy who had gazed up at mysterious skies turned into a man who wanted to become an astrophysicist.<\/p>\n

But Africa has a challenge: astronomy as a profession is a little known field of science in all but one country, South Africa. Even high school science teachers are often not aware that astronomy is a branch of physics, is therefore a science, and could be presented to pupils as a viable career option. The construction of the mid frequency part of the SKA in South Africa, in partnership with eight other African countries, means the continent needs to encourage, produce and nurture young astrophysicists.<\/p>\n

Very few African universities offer postgraduate degrees in astronomy. Most that do are based in South Africa; the others include the University of Mauritius and Kenya\u2019s University of Nairobi.<\/p>\n

This gap in knowledge, information and study is now being bridged by joint UK-South Africa project that trains students from Africa in the field of astronomy with a focus on radio astronomy. I am a student of the Development in Africa through Radio Astronomy<\/a> project currently studying towards my PhD at the University of Leeds<\/a>. The funding stems from the UK\u2019s Newton Fund<\/a> and is matched by funding from South Africa\u2019s department of science and technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good example of how training and partnerships can help to build the scientists Africa needs to establish itself as a key player in astronomy, radio astronomy and astrophysics.<\/p>\n

How the project works<\/strong><\/p>\n

DARA conducted training programmes in Kenya and Zambia during 2015 building on a concurrent programme in Ghana funded by the UK\u2019s Royal Fund. There it equipped 40 students with the fundamentals of radio astronomy. It was a challenging, competitive and captivating two months consisting of four different training units. We were trained in the technical aspects of radio astronomy as well as learning about data collection and reduction. We collected and analysed data from a nearby astrophysical object \u2013 the sun, for example.<\/p>\n

Of those 40 trainees, six \u2013 myself among them \u2013 were sponsored for further postgraduate studies in the UK; ten others were funded to study further in South Africa. The selection was made with partner institutions in each participating country.<\/p>\n

Leeds is one of four participating UK universities. The others are the University of Manchester, University of Hertfordshire and Oxford University. These are all centres of excellence. We will also, during our studies, spend some time in South Africa supervised by a South African collaborator. This is important preparation for future collaborations, which are crucial in science<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As trainees, we\u2019ve enjoyed interactions with senior research scientists and presentations from renowned academics. We present our work to each other and develop the skills we\u2019ll need to be working scientists. We\u2019re also looking forward to welcoming fellow students from countries such as Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius, Madagascar and Mozambique as the project expands further across the continent.<\/p>\n

This training formula has the potential to inspire and empower many more individuals across Africa. And the benefits won\u2019t be felt just in the field of astronomy. The skills my colleagues and I are developing are widely applicable. They can be used in a number of areas: research, computing, telecommunications, land management and even business.<\/p>\n

Preparing Africa for the SKA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Equally important is DARA\u2019s role in preparing Africa ahead of the completion of the SKA, the world\u2019s largest radio telescope<\/a>. It is partially hosted in South Africa. SKA-Africa is also funding the conversion of the redundant satellite earth stations in Africa into radio telescopes that will form a network of telescopes<\/a> called the African VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) Network \u2013 a technique that will simulate a telescope the size of Africa.<\/p>\n

These are major investments in science. It\u2019s important that preparations be made for their proper maintenance and successful operation \u2013 and that requires trained radio astronomers to do the work. The amount of data to be collected from these facilities is also large; if this collection is to be thorough and successful it will require properly trained big data managers and researchers. This is why DARA is preparing people like me for the future of African astronomy.<\/p>\n

These telescopes can be seen as a sign of trust that the rest of the world has placed in Africa. They are capital intensive science facilities. With proper training programmes and the development of more African astronomers, the continent can repay this trust many times over.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong>Willice O. Obonyo is a PhD student (Radio Astronomy) at the University of Leeds <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up in a Kenyan village with dark skies and vivid stars. We admired the sky and listened to stories about it told by the elders. There were few expectations that the children in our village would ever understand the sky\u2019s secrets as this was unimaginable at the time. I excelled at maths and […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":37494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[12140],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-37493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-higher-education","tag-astronomy-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I grew up in a Kenyan village with dark skies and vivid stars. We admired the sky and listened to stories about it told by the elders. There were few expectations that the children in our village would ever understand the sky\u2019s secrets as this was unimaginable at the time. I excelled at maths and […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"383\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":854,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/squaremilearray.jpeg\",\"keywords\":[\"Astronomy\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Higher Education\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/\",\"name\":\"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/squaremilearray.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/squaremilearray.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/01\\\/squaremilearray.jpeg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":383},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"I grew up in a Kenyan village with dark skies and vivid stars. We admired the sky and listened to stories about it told by the elders. There were few expectations that the children in our village would ever understand the sky\u2019s secrets as this was unimaginable at the time. I excelled at maths and […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":383,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible","datePublished":"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/"},"wordCount":854,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg","keywords":["Astronomy"],"articleSection":["Higher Education"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/","name":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg","datePublished":"2017-01-13T21:22:09+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/squaremilearray.jpeg","width":680,"height":383},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/rural-kenya-phd-astronomy-partnerships-made-possible\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"From rural Kenya to a PhD in astronomy: how partnerships made it possible"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37493"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=37493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}