CHPC researcher chairs session at IHY-Africa/SCINDA workshop

Dr Daniel Moeketsi, research scientist at the CHPC, did double duty when he was called upon to chair the session on communications infrastructure for Africa and gave an invited talk at the International Heliosphysical Year (IHY)-Africa/SCINDA workshop held in Livingstone, Zambia in June 2009. His talk was titled 'Centre for High Performance Computing in South Africa: Opportunities for Africa research collaboration'.

Moeketsi's aim was to promote the CHPC's facilities among African scientists in space science. His audience comprised 79 African delegates (representing 19 countries) out of a total of 116, many of them high-ranking representatives from international organisations such as NASA. North-West University's Professor Marius Potgieter who leads the flagship programme on 'Computational space physics and astrophysics', was also present at the event.

In Moeketsi's opinion, research on space weather needs to be the focus of additional workshops involving African countries. In this manner, more applications of the research will become apparent as collaboration unfolds.