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Building capacity for astronomy research and education in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Peter Martinez
Peter Martinez*
Affiliation:
South African Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 9, Observatory 7935, South Africa email: peter@saao.ac.za
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Abstract

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About 1.5% of the world's professional astronomers are based Africa, yet in terms of research output, African astronomers produce less than 1% of the world's astronomical research. The advent of new large-scale facilities such as SALT and HESS provides African astronomers with tools to pursue their research on the continent. Such facilities also provide unprecedented training opportunities for the next generation of African astronomers. This paper discusses recent efforts to develop astronomy education and research capacity on the continent. Various capacity-building initiatives are discussed, as well as the lessons learnt from those initiatives.

Keywords

AstronomyAfricaeducationresearch

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