Invited Plenaries
Dr. Kate Shaw, ICTP Physics Without Frontiers
Dr. Kate Shaw is an experimental particle physicist working on the ATLAS experiment at CERN, where her research interests are focused on the physics of the top quark and luminosity determination and calibration. She is lecturer at the University of Sussex, UK, working in the Sussex ATLAS group, and she is a staff scientist at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy, where she coordinates the Physics Without Frontiers programme which inspires, trains and educates physics and mathematics students worldwide. Shaw is passionate about physics outreach and public engagement, for which she won the 2015 EPS outreach prize for outstanding achievement, and works to promote diversity in physics.
Prof. Alison B Walker, University of Bath BA2 7AY, UK
Alison Walker is a Professor in Physics at the University of Bath. Her research field is materials and device modelling for organic and hybrid organic-inorganic devices for which she is internationally known. She pioneered Kinetic Monte Carlo modelling of organic devices.
She codeveloped a model for mixed ion-electron conduction in perovskite cells with a mathematics group at Southampton and investigates the electronic structure of perovskites using ab initio molecular dynamics with a chemistry group at Bath. She has over 180 publications and sits on a national panel assessing the excellence of UK physics research. She coordinates EU H2020 projects Extmos on organic device modelling, and the EU training network Maestro on perovskite cells and is a team leader in projects EoCoE, EoCoE-II and the EU Materials Modelling Council. UK funding includes the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable PV, CDT-PV as Academic Director and co-leader and membership of the Supersolar NetworkPlus.
She codeveloped a model for mixed ion-electron conduction in perovskite cells with a mathematics group at Southampton and investigates the electronic structure of perovskites using ab initio molecular dynamics with a chemistry group at Bath. She has over 180 publications and sits on a national panel assessing the excellence of UK physics research. She coordinates EU H2020 projects Extmos on organic device modelling, and the EU training network Maestro on perovskite cells and is a team leader in projects EoCoE, EoCoE-II and the EU Materials Modelling Council. UK funding includes the Centre for Doctoral Training in New and Sustainable PV, CDT-PV as Academic Director and co-leader and membership of the Supersolar NetworkPlus.
Prof. Patricia Whitelock (South African Astronomical Observatory and University of Cape Town)
Patricia is an astronomer at SAAO and an Honorary Professor in the Astronomy Department at UCT. Her research has centred on the late stages of stellar evolution, when stars lose material processed by nuclear reactions into the interstellar medium. She has also worked on variable stars, the structure of our Galaxy and on the stellar content of nearby galaxies, using data from SAAO and from various space observatories.
She has over 200 papers in refereed journals. She is an Honorary Member and former President of the SAIP and is the recipient of the 2018 SAIP de Beers Gold Medal. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) and a Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She is a former Director of SAAO and is currently on the Executive Committee of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance and the International Astronomical Union Executive Committee’s Working Group on Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics.
She has over 200 papers in refereed journals. She is an Honorary Member and former President of the SAIP and is the recipient of the 2018 SAIP de Beers Gold Medal. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) and a Fellow of the Academy of Science of South Africa. She is a former Director of SAAO and is currently on the Executive Committee of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance and the International Astronomical Union Executive Committee’s Working Group on Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics.
Prof. Regina Maphanga, CSIR
Regina Maphanga is a Principal Researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – Next
Generation Enterprises and Institutions Cluster. Prior to joining CSIR she was an Associate Professor
of Physics at the University of Limpopo and is currently appointed as a Research Associate at the same
institution. In 2012 Regina was appointed as a Junior Associate at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics in Italy. Her research focuses on using computer simulations methods to probe materials properties and design new materials, mainly for energy storage. She is an alumni
member of South African Young Academy of Science and Global Young Academy – the voice of the young scientists around the world. Amongst various professional committees she serves, she is an Honorary Secretary and Executive Council Member for South African Institute of Physics and an elected member of C20 Commission on Computational Physics of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). She received distinguished awards for her outstanding contribution in
Science, Engineering and Technology in South Africa. She made continuous contributions to a number of programmes on promotion of public understanding of science, engineering and technology in SA.
Regina has been invited to participate in various young scientists’ activities, amongst others World
Economic Forum Young Scientist and BRICS Young Scientists Forum. She is involved in various outreach
activities on encouraging youth to become future scientists. She is passionate about science
communication and occasionally writes science communication essays for Science Magazine of
American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Prof. Stephan Woodborne, iThemba LABS
Stephan Woodborne is the Senior Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Scientist at
iThemba LABS (Laboratory for accelerator based sciences). He obtained a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Cape Town in 1996 and took up a post -doctoral fellowship at the CSIR where he understudied John Vogel in the radiocarbon dating laboratory. He ran the Quaternary Dating Research Unit (QUADRU) at the CSIR for 15 years, and in this time introduced luminescence dating to compliment the radiocarbon dating facility, and he also diversified the field of stable light isotope analyses in South Africa. His research interests are in palaeo-science, climate change and ecological processes. He has published more than 80 peer review journal articles in fields as diverse as cholera to social development. He currently manages the stable light isotope laboratory at iThemba LABS, is Associate Professor at the Mammal Research Institute at the University of Pretoria, is Associate Professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of KwaZulu Natal, and is a research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Patricia H. Doherty, Director and Senior Scientist Institute for Scientific Research Boston College USA
Patricia H. Doherty is the Director and a Senior Scientist of the Institute for Scientific Research (ISR) at Boston College (BC). As director of the Institute, she oversees the activities of staff members working on a variety of innovative research projects. These projects include studies of
space physics, space weather, ionospheric and atmospheric effects on space-based systems, ionospheric measurement techniques, chemical reactions in space and magnetospheric physics. As a scientist, Patricia’s own research interests are centered on space weather and ionospheric
effects on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and its relevant applications. In addition, Patricia has been very active in promoting research and education in the science of navigation in developing countries. She is an Associate Editor of the Radio Science Journal, a member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), Past-president of the Institute of Navigation (ION), Chair of the International Union of Radio Scientists (URSI) Commission G, the URSI representative to
the International Committee on GNSS, the Boston College representative to the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) and a member of the USRA Board of Trustees. She is the recipient of numerous awards for research and international outreach including the ION Burka
Award, the ION Weems Award, the ION Distinguished Service Award, the 2017 GPS World Leadership Award and the 2018 AGU Carrington Education and Outreach Award. She is a
Fellow of the Institute of Navigation and a Fellow of the African Geospace Society.
