Executive Committee Member
Patricia Ann Whitelock (Prof) is affiliated to the South African Astronomical Observatory and Astronomy Department at the University of Cape Town. She is the project manager for the South African collaboration with the Vera C. Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and chairs the South African LSST committee. She earned her BSc in 1972 from University College, London University, and completed her PhD in 1976 at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London.
PAW has been Director of the South African Astronomical Observatory. She started the National Astrophysics and Space Science Program (NASSP) and chaired its steering committee for its first twelve years. She has also been President of the South African Institute of Physics and of the Scientific Council for the Strasbourg Astronomical Data Centre (CDS), France.
Within the IAU she has served on the organizing committees for the following commissions: Variable Stars (27), Galactic Structure (33) and Communicating Astronomy with the Public (55), and as President of commission 33 and of division VII (the Galactic System). She served on the Executive Committees for Future Large Scale Facilities, Women in Astronomy, and Global Coordination of Ground and Space Astrophysics, as well as twice serving on the Special Nominating Committee. She also served on the first steering committee for the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development.
She was a fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa (2000), Member of the Academy of Sciences of South Africa (2001), Foreign Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK) now called Honorary Fellow (2004), Honorary Member of the SA Institute of Physics (2008), Honorary Professor University of Cape Town (2017-2026), De Beers Gold Medal of the South African Institute of Physics (2018), Fellow of the SA Institute of Physics (2018), Doctor of Laws (HC) Rhodes University (2020), Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) (2021).
PAW’s research focused on stellar evolution, Galactic structure and the stellar content of Local Group galaxies. She took advantage of the unique facilities at SAAO, which allowed for very long-term photometric monitoring of interesting stars, particularly in the near-infrared. She has authored or co-authored over 200 papers in refereed journals and over 100 in conference proceedings. She had an NRF research rating of A2 ending in 2015 and her Google Scholar H-index is 64. Most of her publications are available via ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4678-4432.
Advancing Astronomy in Africa: Africa holds immense potential, but realizing success in astronomy—and many other fields—relies heavily on fostering collaboration and cooperation both across the continent and globally. PAW’s experience has shown the power of encouraging and empowering talented individuals to work collectively and support one another. She would like to extend this approach across Africa, enabling the continent to make meaningful global contributions to our science and leveraging astronomy as a driver for development.