Research Infrastructure Professionals Programme – RIPP
SAAO wishes to nominate up to 10 candidates for the NRF’s Research Infrastructure Professionals Programme (RIPP) Postdoctoral Fellowships, to start in the 2025 academic year. To be eligible, you must:
- be a South African citizen or permanent resident,
- have obtained a PhD in astronomy or a related field no more than 5 years before the commencement of the fellowship (this may be waived in the case of a maternity-related career break),
- be able to take up the position (PhD thesis accepted) by 31 December 2024
RIPP fellowships provide a taxable salary of R400,000 per year, for a 3-year period. SAAO expects to be able to provide additional support for computing equipment and conference or observing travel.
Fellows at SAAO will work under the mentorship of a staff astronomer. If you are interested in being considered for this opportunity, please contact one or more potential mentors from the list below, to discuss your research plans. SAAO will nominate candidates for RIPP Fellowships by mutual agreement between the candidate and their proposed mentor. We encourage you to start discussions with potential mentors as soon as possible. SAAO’s deadline for selecting candidates to nominate is 13 September 2024
For general enquiries, please contact Dr. Ros Skelton ros@saao.ac.za
Lee Townsend
lee@saao.ac.za I am a SALT astronomer and instrument scientist for RSS, SALT’s prime focus spectrograph. My research interests include X-ray binaries, accretion, highly magnetised neutron stars, massive stellar evolution, the Magellanic Clouds and, more broadly, astrophysical transients and multi-wavelength follow-up.
Retha Pretorius
retha@saao.ac.za My research interests are in interacting binaries, astrophysical transients, accretion and jet physics, as well as binary star evolution and populations.
Encarni Romero Colmenero
erc@salt.ac.za I am Head of SALT Astronomy Operations at the SAAO. My main research interest is in the field of reverberation mapping of AGN and would love to have a postdoc working with me in this area. I am also a member of the LCO IDRM Key Project and of KAMP.
Sabyasachi Chattopadhyay
sabyasachi@saao.ac.za I lead SAAO’s astro-photonics group, where we are developing state-of-the-art spectroscopic instruments geared towards studies of the ISM and extra-galactic astronomy. Prospective projects involve commissioning and obtaining science validation data for two existing instruments in the field of star-formation, ISM metallicity, dust mapping etc. Other projects involve design, assembly, pipeline development for upcoming instruments.
Nicolas Erasmus
nerasmus@saao.ac.za I’m an Instrumentation Scientist and Astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO), where my research focuses on Solar System Science, specifically main-belt and near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). My research specialty involves automated rapid-follow-up characterisation of newly discovered and potentially hazardous NEAs. I am also involved in astronomical instrumentation development and commissioning for various telescopes and instruments operated by the SAAO in Sutherland.
Paul Groot
p.groot@astro.ru.nl I work on fast transients, gravitational wave sources and ultracompact binaries using wide-field surveys, among others with the MeerLICHT, BlackGEM, Lesedi and SALT telescopes. I also have a keen interest in astronomical instrumentation.
David Buckley
dibnob@saao.ac.za My research interests are focused on accreting compact binaries, involving white dwarfs, neutron stars or black holes, which mainly involve optical observations, particularly with SALT. Some of this research also involves multi-wavelength observations (gamma ray, X-ray & radio) through wider collaborations. I am Principal Investigator for the SALT followup programme on transients and am also one of the South African PI Affiliates for the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), focusing on transient detection and followup.
Steve Potter
sbp@saao.ac.za I’m the PI of the intelligent observatory programme. My research interests are in transient and time domain optical astronomy with particular expertise in polarimetry.
Ros Skelton
ros@saao.ac.za I am a SALT astronomer and head of research at SAAO. My research interests are in galaxy evolution, particularly the effects of environment on the gas content and mass growth of galaxies, which our group explores with multi wavelength data from SALT, MeerKAT and other telescopes. I am part of the 4MOST Hemisphere Survey and would like to offer a postdoc position on 4HS-related projects.
Itumeleng Monageng
itu@saao.ac.za, My research interests are in multiwavelength studies of X-ray binaries, accretion physics, massive binary stellar evolution, astrophysical transients and time-domain astronomy.