Students and staff at the North-West University’s (NWU’s) Centre for Space Research showed their mettle during the annual conference of the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP).

Four students won awards for best student presentations in the astrophysics and space science divisions.

Katlego Moloto and Jabus van den Berg were awarded in the category for best presentation by a PhD student. Katlego’s presentation was about a multi-decade approach to long-term cosmic-ray modulation, while Jabus’s presentation spoke about the energy losses and propagation times of solar energetic particles. Katlego is a lecturer at the Centre for Space Research.

Nadine Dempers delivered the best presentation by an honours student about the effects of dissipation range turbulence on the perpendicular diffusion coefficients of cosmic ray electrons.

Omphile Rabyang received the accolade for the best presentation by a PhD student in astrophysics. The title of her presentation was “neutrino detections in tidal disruption events”.

Prof Du Toit Strauss was awarded the prestigious SAIP Silver Jubilee Medal in recognition of his outstanding achievement as a younger physicist.

The NWU was also accorded the honour of hosting the next SAIP conference, bringing South Africa’s physics community to Potchefstroom in 2020.

These NWU students took part in the 2019 SAIP conference in Limpopo.