Rhodes alumna Michelle Knights returns to Grahamstown as part of Scifest Africa on Saturday 15 March to give prestigious Christina Scott Memorial lecture.
Rhodes alumna Michelle Knights returns to Grahamstown as part of Scifest Africa on Saturday 15 March to give prestigious Christina Scott Memorial lecture.
Knights will be lecturing on the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope (SKA).
SKA is a joint collaboration between 13 countries and close to a 100 organisations.
Once it has been built it will be the world’s biggest telescope.
It will be used to further understand how stars and galaxies formed and how they have evolved over time, though its possible uses are endless.
Knights' lecture will focus on the story of how the SKA project came to be, what difference it will make to our lives and how you can get involved in the project.
Since completing her Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in 2009, Knights has gone on to win the first FameLab competition in South Africa.
FameLab is an international initiative aimed at encouraging scientists to engage public audiences with accessible concepts in science, technology, engineering and maths, to change perceptions of science and inspire a new generation of scientists.
Commonly known as 'Idols for scientists', participants compete to give the most interesting talk on their area of expertise in just under three minutes.
As testament to her abilities, Knights also holds a highly competitive bursary from the (SKA) South Africa projects.
She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Cosmology at the University of Cape Town.
Christina Scott was one of South Africa's premier science journalists.
In her obituary for the Times, she was described as democratising science.
She was passionate about the power of science to transform societies but believed that as long as it remained a closed book to people outside the scientific community its benefits would be very limited.
Scifest will take place from Wednesday 12 March until Tuesday 18 March.
Celebrating the theme 'Into the space', the 2014 festival programme will offer visitors over 500 events that will explore spaces big and small, such as anatomy and the brain, astronomy, the atmosphere, architecture, biotechnology, the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Space Agency, geographical regions, nanotechnology, psychology, underground and underwater exploration, space sciences, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and the universe.
Knights' lecture will take place at the Monument's Olive Schreiner Hall, at 1pm and 2pm on Saturday 15 March. Tickets R15.
