RESEARCHERS FEATURED

Samson Bada

Associate Professor Samson Bada is a Reader and the research leader in the Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Group in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at Wits. His goal is to establish innovative solutions for the clean and responsible utilisation of South Africa’s coal and its derivatives. With over 15 years in CCT research, Bada has an extensive knowledge and understanding of how to match South Africa’s variable coal to a wide range of applications –specifically, use of coal/derivatives in energy and non-energy applications (sustainable feedstock in a circular economy and renewable space).

Victor De Andrade

Dr Victor de Andrade is an audiologist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology. He supervises Wits students on their clinical placements and works in the University’s Speech and Hearing Clinic. His interests span socio-cultural and contextual aspects of deafness; noise in learning environments; the experience of deafness including third-party disability, deafness, disability, sexuality, and assistive technologies. He has been invited to advise and consult on deafness and assistive technologies to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and others.

TRACY-LYNN FIELD

Professor of Law, Tracy-Lynn Field is an enrolled advocate and the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Earth Justice and Stewardship at the Mandela Institute at Wits. Her research expertise includes environmental law, human rights, mining law, climate change law, water law, extractives industry transparency, mineral property regimes, mineral taxation regimes, and open government. She was part of a closed meeting of experts convened by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Environment to consider the global, formal recognition of the human right to environment.

Lesedi Masisi

Dr Lesedi Masisi is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at Wits. His research is in the field of rotating electric machines, drives, power electronics, and the electrification of transportation. Masisi is the Curriculum Chair in the School, and he developed a postgraduate diploma course in electric and hybrid vehicles at Wits. He is a council member of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Concordia, Montreal, Canada.

Presha Ramsarup

Dr Presha Ramsarup is the Director of the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL) in the Wits School of Education. Her research relates to skills development towards a sustainable, just world. Ramsarup has worked on several just transition related programmes, focusing on learning pathways into green jobs and more specifically the greening of traditional jobs as the world of work changes. Her current research explores methodologies to articulate demand for green jobs at employer level and understanding the methodologies to identify skills needed to support a just transition.

Bereneice Sephton

Dr Bereneice Sephton completed her PhD in the Structured Light Lab at Wits University in 2022. Her doctorate is in experimental quantum optics where she twisted and changed the colour of light, from bright lasers to photons, to teleport patterns of light in high dimensions aimed at breaking dimensional barriers. Sephton is now pursuing postdoctoral studies in Naples, Italy, where she continues to play with particles of light to exploit its features for high-dimensional quantum technologies.

Iyabo Usman

Professor Iyabo Usman is the group leader of the Nuclear Structure Research Group in the School of Physics. Her research area in nuclear physics include nuclear-structure, radiation, forensics, and reactor physics. Usman serves as reviewer for the Journal of Radiation Physics and Chemistry and the Journal of Radiation Research and Applied Sciences, and she is the regional editor of the African Physics Newsletter. She holds the industrial liaison portfolio at the Council of South African Institute of Physics, and she chairs the Transformation Committee in the Faculty of Science at Wits.

Bruce Young

Dr Bruce Young is a Senior Lecturer in the Africa Energy Leadership Centre (AELC) at Wits Business School. He holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Wits and spent some 30 years at Sasol. He has significant experience in the petrochemical industry relating to liquid fuels and chemicals, technology development, process commercialisation, technology licensing, intellectual property, mergers and acquisitions, strategy, and business development. He joined the AELC in April 2022.