Pontsho Maruping: Square Kilometer Array, South Africa

Pontsho Maruping, Chair of the Science and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space/Head of Commercialization at the Square Kilometer Array.

Listen to her podcast interview here

Ms Maruping’s career spans both private and public sector at executive level as well as a working knowledge of various sectors. She currently heads up commercialization at Square Kilometer Array (SKA) where she is responsible for driving the transfer of technologies developed for the MeerKAT project into different applications. In addition to this, Ms Maruping is the chairperson of the Council for Space Affairs (SACSA) which is responsible for regulating space activities in South Africa. She chairs the Science and Technology Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on Peaceful uses of Outer Space for 2018-2019.

Prior to joining SKA, she was an executive at the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) responsible for Innovation Funding and Pre-commercialization Support. Her other previous roles include as the CEO of the Mine Health and safety Council and a Chief Director for space science and technology at the department of Science and Technology (DST). While at the DST, she spearheaded the establishment of the South African National Space Agency.

Her educational qualifications include an Executive Masters in Business Administration (IMD, Switzerland), Masters in Space Systems Engineering (TUDelft, Netherlands), Bachelor of Science (Hons.) in Management of Technology (University of Pretoria), Bachelor of Science (Eng.) in Mineral Processing (University of Witwatersrand).

Feel free to connect with Pontsho on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/pontsho-maruping-0b01355/