On Saturday, October 25, 2025, Dominic Vertue from the International Astronomical Union’s Office of Astronomy for Development (IAU OAD) engaged Grade 9 learners at the Maths and Science Leadership Academy (MSLA) in Kimberley, South Africa in a session titled “Under the Same Sky: Astronomy for Mental Health.” The talk explored how experiences of awe, reflection, […]
Author Archives: Ram Venugopal
An initiative of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and Stellenbosch University (SU). From 17–19 October 2025, members of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Development (OAD) and Stellenbosch University’s CoCREATE Health Hub gathered in Sutherland on a research trip to study how astronomy experiences can support mental health and family connection/cohesion. This […]
The project established a community educational program in the remote community of El Rincón in Honduras. Residents of El Rincón live in conditions of extreme poverty with little access to education. Nearly all families work on coffee fields, including children, who are expected to help their families from an early age. The project consisted of […]
Red de Estudiantes Colombianos en Astronomía (RECA) Educación, a Colombian non-profit that brings science, astronomy and planetary science to schools and communities across Colombia has been awarded the 2025 Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement. The award was presented at the the Europlanet Science Congress and the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science (EPSC–DPS) Joint […]
The Office of Astronomy for Development has published the Annual Report for 2024-25. It covers highlights from the year including the first IAU General Assembly in Africa, two comments in Nature Astronomy, showcase of our 2024 projects, our (re)new(ed) full moon mashup webinar series and more. The report provides updates from the Regional Offices and […]







