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South African Research Chair in Physical Cosmology, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town

Prof Amanda Weltman is a theoretical physicist who came to the University of Cape Town after earning her PhD in Physics from Columbia University under the supervision of Brian Greene, and working as a postdoctoral Researcher at Stephen Hawking's research group at the Center for Theoretical Cosmology at Cambridge University. Weltman’s research focus is on the fundamental physics that underlies the nature of the Universe. The goals of her research are to study the Universe as a whole, while gaining insight into its origin, composition, structure, evolution and ultimately its fate. Weltman has recently been awarded a SARChI in Physical Cosmology, and is the first woman in the mathematical or physical sciences to win the prestigious award. Weltman has won several prestigious awards including a Next Einstein Fellow award(2015/2016), the South African Institute of Physics Silver Jubilee Medal (2013), the Elsevier Young Scientist Award (2012) and the NSTF-BHP Billiton, TW Kambule Award (2012), the Women in Science award (2009) amongst many others. She is a member of the Cape Town Science Centre Scientific Advisory Board, the South African Royal Society and on the executive of the South African Young Academy of Sciences. “My training and my interests lie in both high energy particle theory and in cosmology,” says Weltman, “and my research is focused on developing bridges between the two.”

Experience

  • –present
    Dr Amanda Weltman is a theoretical physicist, University of Cape Town

Grants and Contracts

  • 2018
    Role:
    South African Research Chair in Physical Cosmology, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
    Funding Source:
    National Research Foundation

Honours

Next Einstein Fellow, South African Research Chair.