Development
IDIA’s Scholarship Program
IDIA supports Honours, Master’s and PhD students and postdoctoral fellows at partner universities through a dedicated scholarship programme.
Since its inception, IDIA has supported students and postdoctoral fellows at the IDIA partner universities. By 2025, this support included Honours, MSc and PhD students, as well as postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to staff roles and research positions in South Africa and abroad.
In 2024, IDIA started its IDIA associate programme, allowing former postdoctoral fellows and students to remain connected with the institute after moving into new roles.
Current Postdoctoral Fellows
| Name | University | Start Year |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Luigi Barchiesi | UCT | 2023 |
| Dr Sushant Dutta | UCT | 2024 |
| Dr Suman Chatterjee | UWC | 2024 |
| Dr Iniyan Natarajan | UP | |
| Dr Sourabh Paul | UWC |
Former Postdoctoral Fellows
| Name | University | Period | Current position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Kshitij Thorat | UP | 2020 | Staff at UP |
| Dr Fangxia An | UWC | 2020 | Associate Professor at YNAO / CAS |
| Dr Marcin Glowacki | UWC | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK), IDIA associate |
| Dr Francesco Cavallaro | UCT | 2020 | Staff at INAF/Catania (Italy) |
| Dr Srikrishna Sekhar | UCT | 2020-2023 | Associate Scientist at NRAO, IDIA associate |
| Dr Matt Prescott | UWC | 2020-2022 | |
| Dr Amadeus Wild | UWC | 2023 | |
| Dr Tamirat Gogo | UWC | 2023 | |
| Dr Alex Sivitilli | UCT | 2023-2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK) |
| Dr Sthabile Kolwa | UCT | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Luke Chamandy | UCT/UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Jonathan Zwart | UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| Dr Zara Randriamanakoto | UWC | Pre-2020 | |
| A/Prof Sally Macfarlane | UCT | Pre-2020 | IDIA Assoc. Director: Development & Outreach |
Current PhD students
| Name | University |
|---|---|
| Lennart Heino | UCT |
| Fabio Luchsinger | UWC |
| Okkert Havenga | UCT |
| Fernando Ventura | UP |
| Theophilus Matsepane | UP |
Current Masters students
| Name | University |
|---|---|
| Boikhutso Mabala | UWC |
| Heinrich van Deventer | UP |
| Stefro Millard | UP |
Graduated PhD Students
| Name | University | Year | Where now? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Kerry Paterson | UCT | 2018 | Euclid Calibration Support Scientist (Germany) |
| Dr Emmanuel Ocran | UCT | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (South Korea) |
| Dr Takalani Marubini | UWC | 2021 | |
| Dr Julia Healy | UCT | 2021 | Support Scientist, UK SRC |
| Dr Nikki Pekeur | UCT | 2023 | Test Engineer (the Netherlands) |
| Dr Charissa Button | UP | 2024 | SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Dr Simon de Wet | UCT | 2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Denmark) |
| Dr Sambatra Rajohnson | UCT | 2024 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Italy) |
| Dr Thato Manamela | UP | 2025 | SARAO Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Dr Brandon Engelbrecht | UWC | 2025 | Software developer (industry) |
| Dr Alex Sivitilli | UCT | 2025 | Postdoctoral Fellow (UK) |
| Dr Tariq Blecher | UP | 2025 | Data Scientist (SARAO) |
Graduated Masters Students
| Name | University | Year | Where now? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wathela Alhassan | UCT | 2018 | PhD student (Poland) |
| Modisha Tladi | UWC | 2019 | Senior Associate (Industry) |
| Narusha Isaacs | UWC | 2020 | PhD student (UWC), IDIA data analyst |
| Tristan Lambert | UCT | 2020 | Postdoctoral Fellow (Australia) |
| Kyle Harrison | UCT | 2020 | Data scientist (industry) |
| Solomon Kapfunde | UCT | 2021 | Library ICT (UWC) |
| Micaela Menegaldo | UP | 2021 | Software engineer (industry) |
| Xola Ndaliso | UWC | 2021 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Junaid Townsend | UWC | 2021 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Wanga Mulaudzi | UCT | 2021 | Data engineering consultant (industry) |
| Thato Manamela | UP | 2021 | PhD student (UP), Postdoctoral Fellow (UP) |
| Sriram Sankar | UCT | 2022 | PhD student (Australia) |
| Jacques Smulders | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Leon Mtshweni | UP | 2022 | Data scientist (industry) / UP PhD student |
| Shilpa Ranchod | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Aphiwe Bangiso | UCT | 2022 | Software developer (industry) |
| Timothy Roelf | UCT | 2022 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Robert Lees | UCT | 2022 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Mpendulo Sibiya | UWC | 2022 | Data analyst (SARAO) |
| Karina Santana | UP | 2022 | PhD student (Wits) |
| Fernando Ventura | UP | 2023 | PhD student (UP) |
| Mosima Masipa | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Daniel Johnson | UCT | 2023 | PhD student (France) |
| Nathan Peters | UCT/UvA | 2023 | |
| Duncan Tilley | UP | 2023 | Software engineer (industry) |
| Chaka Mofokeng | UWC | 2023 | Cloud support engineer (industry) |
| Lwandile Gwebushe | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Nadia Steyn | UCT | 2023 | Software engineer (ICRAR, Australia) |
| Isaac Magolego | UP | 2023 | PhD Student (Wits) |
| Walter Silima | UWC | 2023 | IData-Intensive Astronomy support scientist |
| Sumari Faul | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Moses Mlangeni | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Reikantseone Diretse | UCT | 2024 | Data analyst at IDIA |
| Tilman Oelgeschlager | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Germany) |
| Jade Lindsay Petersen | UWC | 2024 | Data analyst (industry) |
| Henco Arlow | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Martin Shanobe | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Boaz Gi | UCT | 2024 | Software developer (industry) |
| Toivo Samuel Mabote | UP | 2024 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Mikhail de Villiers | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (UCT) |
| Koketso Mohale | UWC | 2023 | PhD student (UWC) |
| Andrew Firth | UCT | 2024 | PhD student (Rhodes) |
| Michaela van Zyl | UCT | 2025 | Visualisation Software Engineer (IDIA) |