Rising Star Africa Lecture: Astronomy & Astrophysics as development drivers

The Royal Society Rising Star Africa Prize 2025 is awarded to Professor James Okwe Chibueze for work on advancing African astronomy through pioneering research, capacity building, and international collaborations.

The fundamental role of astronomy is to satisfy our curiosity about our universe. Facilities like the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), MeerKAT telescope (and upcoming Square Kilometre Array, SKA) and many other initiatives including the African VLBI Network (AVN) and the African Millimetre Telescope (AMT) have changed the astronomy landscape of the African continent in the last 2 decades. Are Africans truly participating in the co-creation of knowledge using these facilities or merely hosting them? Is astronomy being used as a lever to drive any form of development on the African continent? Innovative and skilful workforce is a key driver of development. This talk will unveil some of astronomy knowledge contributions from the African continent and how astronomy and astrophysics serve as development drivers in Africa.

James Chibueze is a Distinguished Professor of Astrophysics at University of South Africa and the Head of the UNISA Centre for Astrophysics and Space Sciences. He completed his BSc Hons (First Class) in Physics and MSc in Astrophysics at the University of Nigeria and PhD at Kagoshima University, Kagoshima, Japan. He is one of the Vice Presidents of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), co-chair of the Science Committee of the African Astronomical Society (AfAS), and he is an international member of the UK enhanced Multi Element Remotely Linked Interferometer Network (e-MERLIN) steering committee. His science interests include, but not limited to, Galactic star formation, VLBI astrometry with masers, radio galaxies, Galaxy Clusters, FRBs, and high-fidelity imaging with sensitive radio interferometers (ALMA, VLA, MeerKAT).

Attending the event

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• Live subtitles will be available in-person and virtually

Attending in person

• This lecture can be attended in-person at the Royal Society
• Doors will open to the public at 6.00pm GMT

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Attending online

• The lecture will also be livestreamed here and on the Royal Society YouTube channel
• You can take part in the live Q&A via Slido
• This event will be recorded (including the live Q&A) and the recording will be available on YouTube soon after the event
• For all enquiries, please contact awards@royalsociety.org