Mandate
The Astronomy Community Task Team is established to:
1.1. coordinate the renewal of the Multiwavelength Strategy for the 2025 – 2035 period
1.2. provide advice and input on policies affecting astronomy in South Africa
1.3. establish committees or teams that can propose approaches to address strategic issues in astronomy in South Africa, organize town and science meetings for the professional astronomy community in South Africa, and
1.4. liaise with other astronomy stakeholders outside of the direct astronomy research community within South Africa (e.g. amateur community, astrotourism, etc)
The task team should be seen as representative of the South African professional astronomy community, and should form a bridge between government structures and the community.
The annual astronomy town meeting is the primary platform where the community holds the ACTT accountable for this mandate.
Membership
The members of the Astronomy Community Task Team are:
- Zolile Mguda (Unisa, Chair)
- Brian van Soelen (UFS)
- Daniel Cunnama (SAAO)
- Jack Radcliffe (UP)
- Kelebogile Gasealahwe (UCT & SAAO, PhD student)
- Kshitij Thorat (UP)
- Retha Pretorius (SAAO)
- Vanessa McBride (OAD & SAAO, ex-officio)
Terms of Reference
Download version 2.0 as PDF
Get in touch with the ACTT
HCD Task Team
The Human Capacity Development (HCD) task team was constituted to address some of the pertinent issues related to student funding in astronomy in South Africa, as raised in the Astronomy Town meeting of September 2022. The committee will engage with relevant universities, and the NRF, to address these issues. The members are:
- Hubert Mathebula (DSI)
- Kim de Boer (SARAO)
- Patrick Woudt (UCT)
- Stefan Ferreira (NWU)
- Sivakumar Venkataram (UKZN)