News
Invited Talk: Tuesday 14 May 2019 - Prof Justin Jonas
Title: Design of MeerKAT
Author: Prof Justin Jonas
Chief Technologist,
SARAO
Director of the Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT)
Rhodes University
Abstract:
The MeerKAT radio telescope is a precursor to the SKA-mid instrument, and will be incorporated into the first phase of the SKA-mid implementation. The design choices made during the development of the MeerKAT were based on rational criteria set by the intended science cases for both the MeerKAT and the SKA. The lecture will focus on the derivation of the specifications for the MeerKAT, and on the subsequent design and implementation of the 64-antenna MeerKAT telescope that is currently being commissioned in the Karoo.
More about the author:
Justin Jonas was born in London and emigrated to South Africa with his parents in 1965. He attended school in Uitenhage, matriculating from Muir College in 1975. All of his tertiary degrees were obtained from Rhodes University, culminating in a PhD in Radio Astronomy in 1999. His PhD topic was the Rhodes/HartRAO 2.3 GHz radio continuum survey of the Milky Way. He has worked in the Department of Physics and Electronics at Rhodes since 1981, starting as a research technician and progressing through the researcher and lecturer ranks, and was appointed as Professor of Physics and Electronics in 2001. From 2003 till 2006 he was seconded to be the Managing Director of the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (a post he again holds temporarily). He has been closely associated with the Square Kilometre Array project since 2001, and is currently the Chief Technologist for SARAO (South African Radio Astronomy Observatory). This is a joint appointment with Rhodes, where he is Director of the Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT). He has been intimately involved in the design and construction of the MeerKAT radio telescope, and sits on the advisory committee to the SKA Organization. He is interested in all aspects of observational Radio Astronomy, from instrument design through to data processing. His scientific interests include the radio emission from the Milky Way and radio transients and pulsars.