Tiaan doing his PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Manchester
At the moment just one of the things Tiaan is studying is the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)
For many people staring at the stars is relaxing, yet for one gentleman from eMalahleni it’s a career that he totally loves.
Tiaan Bezuidenhout (26) grew up in eMalahleni, and attended primary school at Laerskool Kragbron where he excelled.
His high school of choice was Hoër Tegniese Skool and when he matriculated at the end of 2011 he walked away with eight distinctions.
Tiaan then decided to go to the North West University to study Chemical Engineering.
Which he did for six months before realising that it was not for him and he made a career change.
When Tiaan was 15 years old he read a book called ‘A Brief History of Time’ by Stephen Hawking.
What he read in that book somehow always stuck in the back of his mind and that is where he found his inspiration to start his studies in Physics and complete his BSc.
That was not enough and Tiaan did his honours in Astrophysics.
He received a bursary from National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme (NASSP) as an MSc student, by the end of which he was selected to do his PhD at the University of Manchester.
Tiaan has been there since May 2018.
His PhD study is about Radio Astronomy, and even though he is doing his studies in the United Kingdom, he still works with the MeerKAT telescope here in South Africa, situated in the Karoo.
At the moment just one of the things Tiaan is studying is the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs).
These are transient radio pulses ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to a few milliseconds in duration.
They originate from outside the galaxy, are very energetic, and the process that causes them is not yet understood.
According to Tiaan it is very rare that they reoccur.
But you may ask, what is a fast radio burst?
Tiaan took some time to explain what the few he has seen already look like .
“If you can imagine a heart rate monitor, the signal from an FRB is something similar. There is a long flat line, then all of a sudden there is a spike, and then a flat line again,” said Tiaan.
Currently Tiaan is doing his third year of his PhD and his submission date for his thesis is in September 2021.
You can follow Tiaan on The Jodcast.net
