Speaker
Description
The Ecoles du Monde (EDM) Campus in Besely, Madagascar, hosted its first pan-african astronomy school, explicitly targeting countries where the field is nascent—driven by amateur groups or the recent emergence of their first PhD graduate. The core mission is to bridge the resource gap by providing practical access to modern astronomical tools, thereby accelerating the growth of skilled researchers and educators across the continent. This initiative stands as a prime example of a sustainable cascade outreach model.
The success of the school relies on strong institutional backing and co-organization by key partners, including the Société Astronomique de France (SAF), Haikintana - Astronomy association, the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF), and the African Initiative for Planetary and Space Sciences (AFIPS), alongside other institutional entities. Their collaboration ensures the high academic and technical quality of the training provided.
The centerpiece of the school is the first operational robotic astronomical observatory in Madagascar (C14 telescope). The inaugural session hosted 13 students: eight from French-speaking African countries and five Malagasy students. The curriculum blended theoretical lectures with intensive practical sessions focused on the remote operation of the observatory. Students were trained to conduct real-time observations, specifically contributing to collaborative research projects such as asteroid observation and astrometry.
The key outcome is the cascading effect: participants are not only equipped to contribute to active scientific research using the Besely facility but, crucially, are prepared to return to their home institutions and train subsequent generations of students in instrumentation and data analysis. This ensures that the acquired knowledge and skills propagate laterally and vertically, creating sustainable, self-sufficient astronomical communities and validating the cascade model as an effective strategy for continental scientific development.
| Stream | Education, Development and Outreach |
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