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UCT RESEARCH REPORT 2012
Highlights from 2012
The Centre for Materials Engineering had a Geeble
3 800 installed thanks to an NRF special equipment
award. Valued at more than R10 million, the Geeble
3 800 will place the centre at the forefront of
research into the performance of materials during
manufacture, allowing researchers to investigate
novel materials processing.
Aurecon has committed R2 million over the next
five years to support postgraduate students in the
Department of Civil Engineering.
Professor Mark Alexander, Dr Hans Beushausen, and
Mike Otieno (PhD student) from the Department of
Civil Engineering were awarded the Wason Medal
for Materials Research from the American Concrete
Institute.
Associate Professor Harro Von Blottnitz’s
Environmental and Process Systems Research Group,
in the Department of Chemical Engineering, was
awarded a R2.5 million grant by the NRF to support
research into the emerging biogas innovation sector
in South Africa.
Professor Alison Lewis from the Department of
Chemical Engineering was named Distinguished
Woman Scientist: Physical and Engineering Sciences
at the Department of Science and Technology
Distinguished Women in Science Awards.
Departments
School of Architecture, Planning
and Geomatics
Department of Chemical
Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Department of Construction
Economics and Management
Department of
Electrical Engineering
Department of
Mechanical Engineering
Joyce Mwangama, Gladwell Nganga, and Lombe
Mutale received fellowships from the Department
of Science and Technology for their doctoral and
master’s studies.
The African Centre for Cities co-hosted a workshop
with the Stockholm Resilience Centre, aimed at
gathering an African perspective for inclusion in the
United Nations Environment Programme Convention
on Biological Diversity’s Cities and Biodiversity
Outlook.
C*Change, the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence
in Catalysis, hosted the Syngas Convention in
association with Sasol and PetroSA. This was a first-
of-its-kind convention, dedicated to synthesis gas
conversion and brought together some of the world’s
top scientists and industry experts to build valuable
international collaborations.
Neehal Mooruth and Dr Rob van Hille, from the
Department of Chemical Engineering, received
the Water Institute of South Africa’s award for
the most outstanding contribution to industrial
water technology.
The years ahead will remain exciting and demanding ones
for the faculty, progressing on a journey of providing quality
research output that can make an impact internationally.