Academic excellence NSTF-South32 Awards The Faculty is proud to house one of the winners of the 2019/20 NSTF-South32 Awards of the National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF). Known as the ‘Science Oscars’ of South Africa, these awards are the most comprehensive and sought-after national awards of their kind in the country and recognise outstanding contributions to science, engineering and technology. Prof Josua Meyer (top left), Head of the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, won the male category of the Engineering Research Capacity Development Award. Prof Walter Focke (bottom left), Director of the Institute of Applied Materials in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was also one of the final nominees in the same category.
SAICSIT Pioneer Award Prof Carina de Villiers, Head of the Department of Informatics, has received the Pioneer Award from the South African Institute of Computer Scientists and Information Technologists (SAICSIT). The award recognises individuals who have played pioneering roles in promoting computer science and information technology as academic disciplines in South Africa.
Best paper awards Researchers in the Faculty strive to produce exceptional academic work. This has been recognised through several best paper awards. Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman and Dr Johann Uys, both from the Department of Mining Engineering, received the best paper award from the international Society of Mining Professors (SOMP). The paper, titled “A 4.0D® Leadership Model for mining and related industries in the context of the Fourth
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Industrial Revolution”, explores the development of this model. Dr George Thopil from the Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM), along with his master’s student Norah Mahlangu, received the award for best paper from the Southern African Institute of Industrial Engineering. This paper, titled “Life cycle analysis of external costs of a parabolic trough concentrated solar power plant”, evaluated external impacts and costs for climate change, human health, loss of biodiversity, the local effects on crops and damage to materials.
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During the 14th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, four papers from the Clean Energy Research Group (CERG) in the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering received best paper awards. The researchers responsible for these papers are Prof Ken Craig, Dr Marilize Everts and PhD student Wilhelm van den Bergh. The CERG is led by Prof Josua Meyer, one of the Faculty’s National Research Foundation (NRF) A-rated researchers.
