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Approach to student mentorship and supervision
Approach to student mentorship and supervision
Mentoring students is among the most challenging and rewarding aspects of academia, and it is a role I take very seriously. I meet with my group, affectionately nicknamed CAMIL (the Computational Astrophysics and Machine Intelligence Lab), weekly and hold private meetings with students and postdocs as required. I foster a culture of support and cohesion, encouraging students and postdocs to lend each other their skills and experience as much as possible. Research can be a lonely path and the support of others can make it much easier. I set high expectations for my students, directing each towards a future international career in astronomy, and do everything I can to support them in that journey. I am passionate about transformation and fully support the transformation goals of our funders, the NRF and SARAO. My students generally come from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. While it is useful to be mindful of the different backgrounds students may have, I have continuously been impressed with the high calibre of the students I have had the privilege of supervising.
Throughout my career I have mentored seven Honours students and six MSc students, several of whom graduated with distinction. Three have transitioned to industry, one received a President’s Scholarship to pursue a PhD at Imperial College London, and two remained under my supervision for their PhDs. Currently, I supervise two MSc students, two PhD students and two postdoctoral researchers. My first PhD student, Verlon Etsebeth, has also recently submitted his thesis and passed his degree with very positive examiners reports (currently under review by FHD and SHD).
The majority of the CAMIL group outside the department on the day of Jade and Koketso's MSc graduation, 2023.
I have also played a significant role in developing new approaches to research activities within the astronomy group at UWC, which consists of over 30 students and postdocs. I introduced a new format to journal club which includes a structured approach to reading papers and discussing them in smaller, less intimidating groups. I also introduced a system of feedback in our research meetings where each week students and postdocs present their work and get structured feedback from the rest of the group to improve their presentation skills.
The CAMIL group working intensively during a writing retreat in 2023.
See the CAMIL group subpage for the project titles for all students supervised at UWC and the student papers page for more details of research projects that resulted in papers. I have included projects from students I did not formally supervise but have nonetheless mentored in some capacity and continue to collaborate with. I find working on research projects with students, whether my own or others, to be wonderfully energising and productive. Working with international students in particular directly resulted in several publications and enhanced the experience and skills of my own students through research visits and direct collaboration.
I have been fortunate to work with and mentor exceptional PhD students from all over the world who are still active collaborators of mine. Left to right: Mike Walmsley (PhD, Oxford University), Daniel Muthukrishna (PhD, Cambridge University), Sara Webb (PhD, Swinburne University) and myself.
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