by DION HENRICK in Cape Town
Western Cape Bureau
CAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) -PROFESSOR Amare Abebe has been elected the new president of the African Astronomical Society (AfAS).
He is research director at the Centre for Space Research at the North-West University in South Africa.
Abebe’s focus will be on expanding membership, fostering research collaboration and enhancing astronomy education and outreach across Africa.
He highlighted the need to increase membership across African nations, noting that Africa, with a population of nearly 1,5 billion people, has about 500 active AfAS members.
“To put matters in perspective, in the United States, with 340 million people, the American Astronomical Society has more than 6 000 members, and in the United Kingdom, with 68 million people, the Royal Astronomical Society has over 3 000 members.”
Abebe also emphasised the importance of building stronger ties between AfAS, governments, industries and international organisations to foster interdisciplinary research, industry partnerships and policy support.
He noted out of the more than 50 countries in Africa, no more than 20 of them had any meaningful astronomy programme.
“There is a lot of room for growth, and there needs to be enhanced public awareness of astronomy across Africa, particularly in underserved regions.”
He identified outreach programmes, educational initiatives and integration into school curricula as key to increasing interest in astronomy.
Based in Cape Town, AfAS was established to create a globally competitive and collaborative astronomy community in Africa.
– CAJ News