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...
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