A female Physics Master’s student, Ms Vhuthu Miranda Tshilengo from the Faculty of Science, Engineering, and Agriculture has been invited to attend the SA-JINR International Student Practice in Dubna, Russia.
This three-week programme, held from June 2 to June 21, 2024, is designed to attract talented young individuals to the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) and raise awareness about the opportunities for studying and conducting scientific research. Initiated by the JINR University Centre in 2004, the Practice provides students with information about the extensive range of scientific research at JINR, allows them to conduct a research project at the Institute’s primary experimental facilities under expert
guidance, meet Institute staff, choose a scientific supervisor for potential future thesis work at JINR, attend lectures by leading JINR scientists on contemporary physics issues, and experience Russian culture.
Ms Tshilengo hails from Tshilamba, Mutale, near Thohoyandou. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Venda in 2020 and an Honours degree in Physics in 2021. She began her Master of Science in Physics at the University of Venda in 2022, focusing on Radio Astronomy, and is currently in the final year of her master’s degree programme, completing her project. Her research utilises existing MeerKAT data from the MHONGOOSE large survey project, which is stored on the Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy’s (IDIA) federated research cloud. She is conducting commensal searches for radio transients and variables under the supervision of Prof Patrick Woudt from the University of Cape Town and Prof Eric Maluta from the University of Venda. Conducting these transient surveys with radio imaging requires substantial computing power, data storage, and time.
Such surveys are crucial for astronomers to gain new insights in time-domain radio astronomy, particularly in discovering the population of faint radio transients and variables. The faculty is proud of Ms Tshilengo and wished her the best of luck.
Issued by:
Department of Marketing, Branding and Communication
University of Venda
Cell: 082 868 2218 or 082 868 1811
