Leadership & community

Driving the global radio astronomy community with strategic vision, collaborative governance, and capacity building.

Strategic roles

  • Science Community Director, UK SKA Regional Centre — leads Team Sapphire across science support, industry engagement, training, and outreach to deliver SKA-ready services.
  • Science engagement & delivery lead, UKSRC directorate — coordinates national user journeys for SKA data products.
  • UKSRC representative on the SKAO science committee — ensures UK community priorities shape Observatory operations, and builds bilateral and multilateral partnerships.
  • Panel member, UKRI funding calls and UK government geodesy advisory committees (2025–) — advises on national research funding and geodetic strategy.
  • Member, UK Active Radar and National Timing committee (2025–).
  • Adjunct Lecturer, Curtin University, and Honorary Research Fellow, University of Manchester — sustains long-term collaboration on VLBI science and training.

Governance & committees

  • Chair, European VLBI Network programme committee (2026–).
  • Co-chair, SKAO VLBI Science Working Group (2023–).
  • Member, African Millimetre Telescope science committee (2024–).
  • Member, European VLBI Network programme committee (2023–), the group that decides the EVN science programme.
  • Founder & chair, SKA-VLBI simulations task force (2022–24) — a multi-national working group shaping SKA-VLBI operational capabilities.
  • Core member, e-MERGE legacy survey; SPARCS; SKA Extragalactic Continuum Working Group.
  • Co-investigator on EMU (Australian SKA precursor), the LOFAR VLBI collaboration, and MeerKAT’s MIGHTEE deep-field survey.
  • Scientific referee for e-MERLIN Time Allocation Committee and peer-reviewed journals (MNRAS, A&A, Nature).
  • Member, South African Astronomy Community Task Team and Interim Task Team.
  • Partner contact, South African National Astronomy & Space Science programme.
  • Member, University of Pretoria HPC steering committee.

Grant leadership & fundraising

  • Building the foundation for geodetic excellence in Africa (2025–27, UKRI, £270k) — project lead on the Africa-UK Physics Partnership initiative laying the groundwork for geodetic infrastructure and capacity across the African continent.
  • DARA Phase 3 (2024–27, £6.1M) — co-investigator leading the data reduction training work package for the human capital development programme.
  • RADIOBLOCKS — New science in radio astronomy (2023–26, EU, €10M) — European Commission grant shared across 33 institutions, advancing the radio astronomy data chain from receiver to final output.
  • NRF incentive grant (2024) and research development programme grant (2023–24) — supported VLBI research at the University of Pretoria.
  • NRF Y1 rating (2022–27) — top-tier peer-reviewed rating in South Africa’s young researcher category.
  • Secured mobility, seed, and student scholarships through SARAO, NRF, STFC, and Imperial College bursaries — ~£15.3M in total across grants, fellowships, and awards.

Conference & workshop organisation

Jack has given 51 colloquia, conference, and seminar talks — 21 of them invited — and has lectured at seven workshops while serving on the organising committees of 11 more.

  • IAU Focus Meeting 7: One Earth, One Sky (2027, Rome) — SOC co-chair.
  • GGOS-Africa 2026 (Nairobi) — organiser, SOC, and LOC.
  • 17th European VLBI Network Symposium & Users’ Meeting (2026, Manchester) — SOC and LOC.
  • AGN on the Beach II (2026, Diani, Kenya) — LOC.
  • SKAO Science Meeting 2025 (Görlitz) — invited speaker and SOC.
  • European Radio Interferometry School (2015–2026) — recurring lecturer and SOC member, most recently for the 2026 school in Sicily.

Building inclusive communities

Jack designs programmes that grow the next generation of radio astronomers. He led the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) data-reduction curriculum, created VLBI tutorials adopted by NRAO, and continues to deliver workshops across Botswana, Zambia, South Africa, and the UK. His outreach ranges from primary-school STEM events to national festivals, and he established the annual Dr Jack Radcliffe Award for Physics to recognise outstanding students.