Benard Nsamba’s first Ugandan astronomy summer school was a success
09.11.2022 15:28
The “Sub-Saharan Africa Astronomy Summer School”, the first international astronomy summer school in Uganda and the whole of East Africa, was held from September 19 to September 30. The SSAASS was organized by Branco Weiss Fellow Benard Nsamba, organizing partner were Mbarara University of Science and Technology (Uganda), Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik and Thüringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg (both Germany), and Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (Portugal). About 30 students from 14 African nations gathered at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Kampala where they heard from experts about the current state of research in the domains of astrophysics: extrasolar planets, stellar and Galactic astrophysics, and extragalactic astronomy.
“We believe that SSAASS not only impacted on the participants’ knowledge and skills in the different astrophysics fields covered at the school, but also motivated and inspired Ugandan high school students to consider careers in astronomy” says Benard Nsamba. “This was attained through the different astronomy outreach activities carried in different high, secondary, schools in Uganda.”
Attending the outreach session on telescope assembling