SKA bid manager at Origins Centre

The Origens Centre is hosting Dr Adrian Tiplady, the Square Kilometre Array Site Bid Manager, who is driving South Africa's bid to host the telescope. Tiplady will deliver a talk entitled The Square Kilometre Array: Searching for the Origins of the Universe. The process for the allocation of a preferred site to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope is nearing its end. The SKA Project is mankind's quest to build the largest, and most sensitive, radio telescope in history. This next-generation scientific facility will probe the very beginnings of the Universe to answer the most fundamental questions facing science today: What is Dark Matter? What is Dark Energy? What are the laws of nature, and how did they guide the evolution of the first stars and galaxies? Are we alone? South Africa, along with eight other African countries, is leading the race to host this giant facility as well as in the development of scientific understanding and technological innovation. This talk will look at all aspects of this international project - from what we will discover in the future, to what we have already put on the ground in preparation of hosting the SKA. Dr. Adrian Tiplady completed his PhD at Rhodes University, and joined the South African SKA Project in 2005.  In 2011, he was named as one of Mail & Guardian's ‘200 Young South Africans to have Lunch With’.