Prof Christo Venter joined the Centre for Space Research, North-West University (NWU) in 2002 as a Graduate Student. This Centre is widely recognized for its excellent research in Heliospheric Physics, Cosmic-ray Modulation, and Gamma-ray Astronomy. The latter subgroup represents the main South African contribution to the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Collaboration, a world-class very-high-energy Gamma-ray telescope situated in Namibia. Prof Venter is also involved in the next-generation ground-based gamma-ray experiment called the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and his group was awarded a Chair in Astrophysics and Space Science by the National Research Foundation (NRF). He is currently an NRF P-rated Scientist with considerable international recognition. Prof Venter completed his MSc (cum laude) and PhD (first class) in 2004 and 2008, under the supervision of the late Prof Okkie de Jager, a well-known researcher in Gamma-ray Astrophysics. His unquenchable enthusiasm first stimulated Prof Venter's interest in gamma-ray pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and globular clusters.
Prof Venter held the following NWU positions: Physics Lecturer (2005 – 2008), Senior Lecturer (2009 – 2014), Associate Professor (2015 – 2017), and Full Professor (2018 – present). He successfully applied for a NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) Fellowship and spent 2009 at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, USA as a postdoc working under the supervision of a world leader in gamma-ray pulsar modeling, Dr Alice K. Harding.
Prof Venter has been Co-Investigator on two successful Fermi Cycle 3 Guest Investigator (GI) Proposals and a collaborator on a Fermi Cycle 4 GI Proposal as well as an Astrophysics Theory Program (ATP) Proposal. As Principal Investigator (PI), he received grants from the NRF's Competitive Support for Unrated Researchers (CSUR), Competitive Support for Rated Researchers (CSRR), and Multi-wavelength Astronomy Research Programme (MAGR) initiatives (2012 – 2018) to the total monetary value of about ZAR 3.2 million.
He is a Member of the Golden Key International Honour Society 2002 – present; top 15% of graduates, the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) 2002 – present; Secretary in 2014 – 2016 and Co-Chair in 2016 – 2018 of the Astrophysics & Space Science Division D, the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) 2006 – present, the African Astronomical Society (AfAS) 2011 – present, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) 2012 – present; Chair of the South African National Committee 2017 – 2018, and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (SAAWK); 2014 – present.
His awards include an NRF/Department of Labour (DoL) Scarce Skills Scholarship (2003 – 2004), the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science (S2A3) Bronze Medal for best Natural Science Master's thesis at the North-West University (2005), and the Elsevier Young Scientist Award (2014).
Prof Venter is Co-Author of 20 peer-reviewed papers, 30 peer-reviewed proceedings, 22 conference proceedings, 165 H.E.S.S. papers, and 24 Fermi papers. Nine of these were published in Science (impact factor 37). He was the Corresponding Author on one), and 3 in Nature (impact factor 41). NASA ADS lists nearly 17 000 citations to these papers, giving an h-index of 68 (Scopus: 14 400 citations, h-index of 63; Web of Science: 12 600 citations, h-index of 60; Google Scholar: h-index of 80). These citations originate from over 80 countries. For the non-Collaboration papers, NASA ADS lists over 760 citations, giving an h-index of 14 (Scopus: 370 citations, h-index of 10; Web of Science: 311 citations, h-index of 9). These citations are from 36 countries. This means an increase in h-index of > 1 per year. Prof Venter also Reviewed 31 papers and conference proceedings (5 for the Astrophysical Journal, impact factor 5.6; 1 for MNRAS, impact factor 5; 1 for PRL, impact factor 8.8).
He has attended 44 international and 21 local conferences. Prof Venter has been invited to give 9 plenary talks. He has Supervised 8 Honours projects, 7 MSc students, 4 PhD students, and acted as an Examiner of 1 Master’s and 2 PhD theses. Prof Venter has Judged student oral talks and posters at the annual SAIP meetings and given several public lectures and radio interviews. He has also acted as Co-Chair of the Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) and Chair of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for an international conference, in addition to being a Member of the SOC and LOC of two other international conferences. Prof Venter also served as Subject Head: Physics (2015 – 2017).
He has collaborated with Dr Clapson (Max Planck Institute) and Dr Kopp (University of Kiel/Bochum) during their visits to his home institute as part of ongoing international collaborative research, and also visited Dr Harding (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) four times.
Prof Venter is a Member or Associate Member of the following international Collaborations: H.E.S.S. (2005 – present; 75 days of observations; part of 17 observational proposals); Fermi (2009 – present); CTA (2017 – present); Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT or TRAPUM (2017 – present); Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer or NICER (2017 – present); and also the national SA-GAMMA Consortium (2013 – current).
Prof Venter plans to continue research in the lively field of Multi-wavelength Astrophysics including the use of data from facilities such as H.E.S.S., Fermi, CTA, Chandra, NICER, MeerKAT and SKA.
