Professor Manasse Mbonye, the NUR Vice Rector for Academic Affairs, is a Relativistic Astrophysicist by training. His speciality is in the physics of Black Holes and in Cosmology (study of the universe).

Dr. Mbonye was born in Gahini, Rwanda. His parents were teachers by profession; his father, Reuben Rwabuzisoni, was a well known educator to many. Mbonye did his high school education at Nyakasura School, in Uganda. He went to Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone for his Bs in Physics, which he was to complete later in the USA. Mbonye obtained his Ph.D. (in General Relativity) from the University of Connecticut (Uconn) in 1996. His Ph.D. dissertation on “Gravitational Perturbations of Radiating Spacetimes” along with his founding of (and his activities in) the “Rwanda Education Reconstruction Effort” (RERE) earned him the 1996 Ph.D. graduate of the Year, at the University of Connecticut (see, articles.courant.com/1996-05-19/news/9605190171_1_doctorate).

Professor Mbonye has had extensive experience in physics, both in research, instruction and student mentoring while at various institutions. These include, the University of Connecticut, the University of Michigan, and Rochester Institute of Technology. Professor Mbonye has also worked with NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD as a National Research Council’s Senior Research Associate, under a National Academies of Science (NAS) award. Professor Mbonye has made several contributions in theoretical physics, especially in mathematical construction of non-singular black hole interiors and in studies of Dynamics of the Universe (from the Big Bang to current cosmic acceleration). Such contributions include the well known Mbonye-Kazanas Model of a Non-Singular Black Hole.