Wits alumni shine at 'Science Oscars'
- Wits Alumni Relations
Top honours at 25th National Science and Technology Forum-South 32 Awards for four Wits-educated professionals.
Four Wits alumni were among the winners’ list at the 2023 National Science and Technology Forum-South32 Awards held on 13 July 2023.
The annual awards ceremony, widely regarded as the “Science Oscars”, recognises excellence and outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology and innovation in South Africa.
For the 25th anniversary of the event, a special NSTF Ukhozi Award was given to Dr Philemon Mjwara (PhD 1995), director general of the Department of Science and Innovation, for his “outstanding contribution to the SET innovation and NSTF over the years”.
Dr Mjwara was recognised for his significant role in contributing to South Africa’s National System of Innovation and building the strong relations between the Department of Science and Innovation and the NSTF since his appointment in 2006. Some highlights of his leadership include being part of the country’s bid for the world’s largest radio telescope bid, the Square Kilometre Array and the MeerKat telescope in the Northern Cape; undertaking genomic surveillance and advising on vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic; building capacity in universities around green hydrogen; and seeing South African scientists at the forefront of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“It’s not what I’ve done, but it’s the efforts of all in the science system that has made this country proud,” he said.
Professor Salome Maswime (MMed 2014, PhD 2017), an obstetrician and gynaecologist head of global surgery at the University of Cape Town, was awarded the NSTF-SAMRC Clinician-Scientist Award. Professor Maswime was acknowledged for pioneering the field of Global Surgery, which combines several disciplines to provide better and equitable surgical care in Africa with its high maternal mortality rates. Her research and its outputs work to enhance life and to improve the health of poorly resourced communities.
She said there are two key areas that the surgical community needed to improve on: understanding the patient, and engaging with the communities they serve. “It’s one thing to operate on a woman with cervical cancer, to remove the uterus and to do all the major things. But has anyone stopped to ask patients, ‘how much do you know about pap smears?’ or ‘do you do pap smears routinely?’” she said.
Professor Nosipho Moloto (PhD 2011) was a co-winner in the Engineering Research Capacity Development category. Her work focuses on finding simple synthetic methods for semiconductor nanocrystals that can be used as essential components in the development of affordable solutions to produce clean water, renewable and clean energy, rapid diagnostics of diseases and fast and easy to operate sensors.
Professor Moloto is a research professor in inorganic chemistry in the School of Chemistry in the Faculty of Science at Wits. She also holds the DSI/NRF/Nedbank SARChI chair in energy materials and is the deputy director of the African Research Universities Alliance Centre of Excellence in materials, energy and nanotechnology. She was also a finalist in the TW Kambule-NSTF: Researcher category.
In the Innovation: Small, Medium and Micro Enterprise category, Dr Reza Mia (MBBCh 2006) – the chairman and founder of Pegasus Universal Aerospace (PUA) – and his team was recognised for the design and development of a vertical take-off and landing aircraft. The PUA team has developed prototype aircraft that could be used for tricky rescue airlifts and emergency air transportation by combining the best features of a helicopter and a business jet. Primarily self-funded, the company is testing quarter-scale models that have a wing-span of four metres. They’ve also partnered with an automation and robotics company. The project is envisaged to create between 7 000 to 11 000 new jobs.
Other alumni finalists included:
Dr Kimberley Chapelle (BSc 2013, BSc Hons 2014, MSc 2016, PhD 2019) – Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Science and Innovation / National Research Foundation: GENUS Next Generation Palaeoscientist Grant and Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits.
Dr Charl Verwey (MMed 2015, PhD 2022) – senior lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits and head of division in Paediatric Pulmonology, and consultant paediatric pulmonologist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital.
Professor Craig Sheridan (BSc Eng 2000, PhD 2013) – professor and director at the Centre in Water Research and Development as well as Claude Leon Foundation chair in water research in the School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies at Wits.
Source: NSTF. See the full list of winners.