Bernard Lewis Fanaroff (born 1947) is a South African astronomer and trade unionist. He served in several positions in the South African government from 1994 to 2000 related to the Reconstruction and Development Programme, the RDP, and to Safety and Security.From 2003 to 2015 he led South Africa's bid to host the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope, the SKA, in Africa and the design and construction of the MeerKAT radio telescope. He is the co-developer of the

Fanaroff–Riley classification The Fanaroff–Riley classification is a scheme created by B.L. Fanaroff and J.M. Riley in 1974, which is used to distinguish radio galaxies with active nuclei based on their radio luminosity or brightness of their radio emissions in relation ...

, a method of classifying radio galaxies. He was the Project Director of South Africa's

Square Kilometre Array The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an intergovernmental organisation, intergovernmental international radio telescope project being built in Australia (low-frequency) and South Africa (mid-frequency). The combining infrastructure, the Square ...

bid.

Education and early life

Fanaroff was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to parents of Latvian and Lithuanian Jewish origins, and attended Northview High School. He completed a BSc.Hons (Physics) in 1970 at the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

(WITS) and a PhD in

Radio Astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1974. While working on his PhD and in collaboration with British astronomer

Julia Riley Julia M. Riley (née Hill, born 1947) is a British astrophysicist who developed the Fanaroff–Riley classification. Personal and professional background She is the daughter of Philippa (born Pass) and British marine geophysicist Maurice Hi ...

, he developed the

of radio galaxies, based on their radio luminosity and emission morphology.

Career and research

After completing his PhD, Fanaroff returned to South Africa and lectured in Astronomy at WITS for two years. He resigned from the university at the end of 1976 to work as an organizer for the Metal and Allied Workers Union. He served as an organiser of MAWU, which later amalgamated with other unions to become the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa and served NUMSA as a national secretary from 1987 to 1994. He joined the government as a Deputy Director-General in the Office of President

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

from 1994 to 1999. He served as head of the Office for the

Reconstruction and Development Programme Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was a South African socio-economic policy framework implemented by the African National Congress (ANC) government of Nelson Mandela in 1994 after months of discussions, consultations and negotiations ...

; Deputy director-general of the Department of Safety and Security (1997-2000); Chair of the integrated Justice System Board and Steering Committee for Border Control. In May 2010 he was appointed a Non-executive director of

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) (). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the larg ...

. In 2003 Fanaroff was appointed the Project Director of South Africa's Square Kilometre Array (SKA) bid, a position he held until his retirement in 2015, although he still continued on in an advisory capacity. Early on Fanaroff realised that the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

region in which the SKA is to be located has a shortage of qualified teachers for mathematics and science. To overcome this problem and to supply the project with future skilled South African scientists, engineers and artisans Fanaroff and his colleagues established an artisan training centre in the Karoo and instituted a programme to bring qualified teachers to the local schools, as part of a much larger Human Capital Development programme to train students from South Africa and the rest of Africa from undergraduate to post-doctoral level. In 2020 Fanaroff was appointed the chairman of the board of directors of Karoo Biosciences, a company co-founded in 2019 by Jack Lewis and Omar Burjaqby.

Honours and awards

*2012 Ambassador of the Year by the Cape Chamber of Business and

Die Burger ''Die Burger'' (English: The Citizen) is a daily Afrikaans-language newspaper, published by Naspers. By 2008, it had a circulation of 91,665 in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa. Along with '' Beeld'' and '' Volksblad'', it ...

*2013 The Order of Mapungubwe: Silver *2017 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship for "exceptional contributions to radio astronomy and his unparalleled leadership through public service..." and in particular for his work with the South African Square Kilometer Array Radio Telescope Project (SKA). *2017 Science for Society Gold Medal from the

Academy of Science of South Africa The Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) is the national science academy in South Africa. It was started in 1996, and encompasses all fields of scientific work. Its legal foundation is the ''Academy of Science of South Africa Act'', Act ...

*2018 Lifetime achievement award by the National Research Foundation *2019 Elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

(FRS) *2022 Elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

* Visiting professor in physics at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

* Fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

* Member of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

* Founder member of the

* Board member of the

South African National Biodiversity Institute The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is an organisation tasked with research and dissemination of information on biodiversity, and legally mandated to contribute to the management of the country's biodiversity resources. ...

* Honorary doctorates from seven South African Universities, including

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

, the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

(UCT) and the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN; , ) is a public research university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University ...

(UKZN)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fanaroff, Bernie Living people South African astronomers University of the Witwatersrand alumni Academic staff of the University of the Witwatersrand 1947 births Alumni of the University of Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society South African trade unionists Members of the American Philosophical Society