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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Professor Renée Kraan-Korteweg, Chair of Astronomy
and Head of the Department of Astronomy at UCT, was
elected Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the
International Astronomical Union (IAU) at the 2012 General
Assembly of the IAU in Beijing.
S
he becomes the third member of the Astronomy Department to have been
elected to this position. This prestigious post was previously also filled by
Honorary Professor Michael Feast (1979–1985) and Emeritus Distinguished
Professor Brian Warner (2003–2009).
Professor Kraan-Korteweg is a world-renowned expert in the mapping of large-
scale structures hidden by the plane of our Milky Way, in relation to the dynamics
and cosmic flow fields in the nearby universe. She is the principal investigator of
various international collaborations and uses a multi-wavelength (combined optical,
infrared, radio astronomy) approach in her research.
Her more recent efforts have focused on mapping the extent and mass of the Great
Attractor, a gravity anomaly in intergalactic space that reveals the existence of a
localised concentration of mass equivalent to tens of thousands of galaxies, each
of which is the size of the Milky Way. A research highlight was the discovery of
another major attractor hidden within the most obscured part of the Perseus Pisces
Supercluster, the northern counterpart of the Great Attractor. In a project led by
her, this structure is investigated in detail using new radio observations with the
Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope in the Netherlands. The survey was designed
in such a way that it will serve as a preparation for SKA Pathfinder HI surveys.
Professor Renée Kraan-Korteweg
elected vice-president of the
International
Astronomical Union
Professor Renée Kraan-Korteweg