My project involves the characterization of star forming regions and Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) activity in high redshift radio source population. Nuclear regions of galaxies are obscured by gas and dust in other wavebands and thus have largely gone undetected in the infrared, optical and x-ray wavelengths. These galaxies can only be properly probed by high angular resolution, in milliarcseconds, radio observations. This will help in distinguishing between star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) activities in these distant galaxies.  Our main goal is to distinguish the two using VLBI radio observations of uJy radio galaxies using the eMERLIN, VLA, EVN and if possible, the AVN as well.

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I have a BSc in Astronomy and Astrophysics and MSc in Nuclear Science from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. My MSc thesis project was “Optimizing the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry Network (AVN) for Astronomy, Geodesy and Astrometry” under the supervision of Dr Alet de Witt at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory, HartRAO in South Africa. The project tried to assess and evaluate the impact that a group of antennas across Africa could have on global VLBI networks and as a stand alone network. A paper is in preparation.

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First and foremost, I want to be an expert in my field: that is star formation, AGNs, galaxies evolution and improve my skills in data reduction and analysis and the VLBI technique and research skills at the end of the PhD.  My immediate and future plans includes going back home occasionally for outreach programmes/projects not only for development of Astronomy but the whole STEM area and education. I am not yet certain whether I want to remain in academia or join the industry, I will decide along the way. Sky is definitely not the limit.