Manasse Mbonye is a

theoretical astrophysicist Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the hea ...

born in

Gahini Gahini is a village and sector in Kayonza District, Eastern Province, Rwanda. It is situated on a hill, at an altitude of 1,520 metres (4,990 ft) above sea-level, close to the eastern edge of Lake Muhazi and by road from the capital, Ki ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

. He is currently Executive Secretary of the

National Council for Science and Technology National Council for Science and Technology () is a national council of Bangladesh government responsible for developing policies concerning science and technology. It develops and manages science and technology research facilities. It is headed by ...

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

Early life and education

Mbonye's parents (Reuben Rwabuzisoni, father) were teachers. His high school education was at

Nyakasura School Nyakasura School is a mixed, boarding, middle, and high school in Fort Portal, Kabarole District, Western Region of Uganda. Location The school is located in Nyakasura, off the Fort Portal-Bundibugyo Road, approximately , by road, north-west of ...

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

. He attended

Fourah Bay College Fourah Bay College is a public university in the neighbourhood of Mount Aureol in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Founded on 18 February 1827, it is the first western-style university built in Sub-Saharan Africa and, furthermore, the first university-le ...

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...

, then obtained his doctoral degree from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

in 1996. His Ph.D. dissertation on “Gravitational Perturbations of Radiating Spacetimes” along with his founding of and activities in the “Rwanda Education Reconstruction Effort” (RERE) earned him the 1996 Ph.D. "Graduate of the Year" at the University of Connecticut.

Research

Mbonye held a postdoctoral position at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

and was a professor at the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

until 2011. He also carried out research at the

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC empl ...

Greenbelt, Maryland Greenbelt is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, and a suburb of Washington, D.C. At the 2020 census, the population was 24,921. Greenbelt is the first and the largest of the three experimental and controversial New Deal ...

as a

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

Senior Research Associate. Mbonye has made important contributions to theoretical physics, including the Mbonye-Kazanas model of non-singular black holes, cosmology with interacting

dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univer ...

, and models for the origin of the

M–sigma relation The M–sigma (or ''M''–''σ'') relation is an empirical correlation between the stellar velocity dispersion ''σ'' of a galaxy bulge and the mass M of the supermassive black hole at its center. The ''M''–''σ'' relation was first presented i ...

. Mbonye is currently Vice-Rector in Charge of Academic Affairs at the National University of Rwanda, and RIT-NUR Research Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mbonye, Manasse Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century astronomers Fourah Bay College alumni Rochester Institute of Technology faculty Academic staff of the National University of Rwanda University of Connecticut alumni University of Michigan faculty People from Eastern Province, Rwanda