Dr Amidou Sorgho is originally from Burkina Faso, he has obtained a PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Cape Town (South Africa) in 2019, where he has also graduated with an MSc degree in 2015. As part of his PhD thesis, he has made use of sensitive 21-cm line observations to map the distribution and kinematics of the faint neutral hydrogen (HI) in late-type nearby galaxies and in the nearby M81 galaxy group. These observations permitted, for the first time, to map with high enough resolution the full extent of an HI arm connecting the M81 group to a dwarf galaxy south of the system, and resolve HI clouds adjacent to the said arm.
After his PhD, Dr Sorgho spent a year as a fellow at the global International Association of Universities (IAU) - Office of Astronomy for Development (IAU-OAD) where he researched how astronomical facilities can be optimally used to impact socio-economic development in rural areas. He has co-authored, during this fellowship, several documents and blog articles outlining best practices regarding development projects targeting underprivileged communities. Since October 2020, he joined the Instituto Astrofísica Andalucía - Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (IAA-CSIC) in Spain as a postdoctoral researcher in extragalactic astrophysics. His research investigates how angular momentum affects the evolutionary path of galaxies, by studying its effects on intrinsic parameters such as morphology, size and mass.
