My name is Maluba Vernon Chisapi, a PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University/iThemba LABS, Cape Town South Africa. My project is on developing a spectrometry system for measurement of internal-pairs or internal conversion electrons (E0 transitions in general); a unique approach to studying 0+ excited states in nuclei, thus enabling us explain better the behaviour of nuclei that decay via E0 transitions. This year I have the privilege of attending the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications, hosted by the University of Namibia (UNAM) and Namibia University of Science and Technology in Windhoek, the capital of the beautiful country Namibia. Before attending the school I always joked that I am not a complete physicists until I attend the ASP, and indeed it did not disappoint!
So if you do not know exactly what this school is all about, I will give you a snippet (& I mean just that, a snippet!) of what it is.
Well, it is what you would describe as an intensive three weeks program where mainly physics graduate students are exposed to a variety of lectures in fundamental physics (and its applications), that is, Particle Physics, High Energy Physics, Cosmology, Nuclear Physics, Astrophysics, actually, literally everything within the study field of PHYSICS and more… I guess you now understand why I used to say to myself “I’m not a complete physicist until I participate in the ASP”. It really is worth attending, and I encourage everyone aspiring to follow a career in the field of Physics or Engineering to consider applying to one in coming years. I like the fact that the organisers admit also students that are just completing their undergraduate degree, I for one believe there is no opportune time to get exposed to all these areas of study than when deciding on what subject to pick up for graduate studies or just deciding what to do next.
…and did I mention lectures are offered by some of the world’s best in most of these fields of study? You won’t have an idea how stimulating interacting with these very helpful people can be unless you are participating in a scientific event of this magnitude for the first time. Talk about networking, the school offers a convenient platform for networking, identifying research ‘buddies’, I can’t think of any other school or scientific (Physics to be specific) event that pulls together close to 100 (of course the number gets bigger every turn) students from all over Africa, of diverse background and research specialization. This initiative is absolutely beneficial to blossoming scientists as some of the ties developed during the school have the potential to grow into supervisor-student relations or stronger research collaborations. If not for anything else, just being enlightened about developments in various areas of research other than my own is reason enough to dedicate every minute of my time. The entire experience at the ASP school is remarkable! Thanks to the great minds behind this initiative, that is Dr. Ketevi Assamagan, Dr. Steve Muanza, Professor John Ellis,… and all others, the local organizing team, not forgetting all the sponsors of the school and all the individuals who sacrificed most hours of their sleep for the entire 3 weeks just so we can have a wonderful and memorable stay in Namibia, hats off to you all…