Inaugural lectures present an opportunity for showcasing exciting and ground-breaking research and teaching being carried out by professors in our University. Each lecture represents a significant milestone in an academic’s career, providing official recognition of their promotion or appointment to full professorship. These lectures are furthermore an ideal opportunity for new professors to introduce themselves and to present an overview of their own contribution to their field to academic peers, students and research collaborators. They are also a platform for celebrating a professor’s academic achievements with his/her family, friends, mentors and colleagues.
Inaugural lectures form part of the University’s Public lectures series and may only be given by all newly appointed full professors who have been appointed in academic Schools and Centres.
Professor Fayth Anese Ruffin
Qualifications: Juris Doctor (USA), PhD (Newark, USA)
Academe finds me in my third career preceded by being a public management professional and a practicing attorney or both simultaneously. Besides holding a Juris Doctorate (law) degree and a PhD in Global Affairs I am consistently engaged in experiential learning. As a warrior-liberator, I seek to free people from the colonised mentality that affects all of us, whilst advancing plural epistemologies as a matter of epistemic freedom. Reflexively, there are a few common threads that link my career lattice and propel my career trajectory. These are justice, liberation and spirituality. Justice means historicised conscientiousness, liberation projects epistemic freedom and spirituality signals expression of one’s highest self. I am one of those Africans whose ancestors were displaced by both the West and East African slave trades. Born in the African Diaspora, I was acutely aware from a very young age of my Africanity. I knew through a deep sense of spiritual guidance from within that I would return to be of service to the continent of my origin.
From 2012 to 2015 I served UKZN as a member of Senate and represented the Senate on the College of Humanities’ Academic Affairs Board and an Academic Promotions Committee. Additionally, I represented the CLMS on the University Honorary Degrees Committee from 2012 to 2015 and the University Institutional Forum from 2012 to 2016. From 2013 I have served the Department of Science and Innovation – National Research Foundation Centre on Indigenous Knowledge Systems (DSI-NRF CIKS) which is comprised of five universities: Northwest University, University of South Africa, University of Limpopo, University of Venda, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal; the CIKS hub is based at UKZN. I played a central role in UKZN African IKS (AIKS) policy-making as part of the working group of experts and engaged in programme planning and curricula development for integrating IKS into curricula at UKZN and elsewhere. From 2014 – 2015 I led curricula design and development for IKS honours programmes for the four UKZN colleges as programme developer, which led to a postgraduate diploma in African Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
My approach to education is primarily centred on liberation. I am a warrior on the battlefield for intellectual liberation. DuBoisian pragmatism grounds my teaching philosophy, I live it as African epistemologies and generate it as continuously unfolding emancipatory education. My research interests are multi-inter-transdisciplinary. I implement ways of intersecting teaching and learning with community engagement as well as undertaking research-led community engagement for co-production of knowledge that solves societal problems. This means my work extends beyond the physical borders of UKZN through work with governmental and non-governmental organisations. For me, research findings co-produced with government, non-governmental organisations, industry and communities inform substantive and procedural aspects of contextualised teaching and learning whilst empowering people and community.
Research areas of expertise include research methodology, public governance, global affairs, epistemic freedom and indigenous knowledge systems. Of the thirty-five graduated upper level students during my eight years at UKZN, seven earned doctorate and twenty-eight masters’ degrees. Ninety percent of these graduates are South Africans and fifty-two percent are female. Results of research that I have led or personally conducted has been invited for presentation at international institutions such as the United Nations General Assembly side event for the Tenth Anniversary of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, Organisation of Economic Development and Cooperation, World Justice Forum and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) of the African Union.
I am grateful for being the recipient of teaching excellence awards including the Distinguished Teacher’s Award from UKZN and the National Teaching Excellence Award from HELTASA/CHE. I am have published widely in books and international journals, delivered conference papers across four continents in ten countries, and am grateful for various research-related awards such as best-paper and best-presentation. I continue to design and facilitate professional development workshops for academics in various universities which are driven by promotion of our authentic selves, infusing spirituality and reflexively practicing the non-dualism of the personal and professional to achieve epistemic freedom through light-working in higher education.
Professor Vimolan Mudaly
Qualifications: B.Paed (UDW), B.Ed Hons (UNISA), M.Ed (UDW), D.Ed (UKZN)
This is my journey of discovery as I moved from research in mathematical modelling to that of visualization. Along the way I learned that ours is a seeing brain, we only ‘see’ what we already know. All mathematical images are processed in the brain (internal) and are then communicated (external) in a symbolic form. In this presentation I trace my trajectory of research as I moved from looking at mathematical modelling to that of visualization in mathematics. I write about a model that I developed that explains my understanding of visualization from the perspective of Sfard’s commognition theory. This has been a series of learning incidents which has resulted in the Iterative Visualization Thinking Cycle.
Vimolan Mudaly is a Professor in the School of Education. He completed his undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Science Education at the former University of Durban-Westville and obtained an honours degree in education from the University of South Africa. He was awarded a Master in Education cum laude and subsequently, obtained a doctoral degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Professor Mudaly served as an examiner and Chief Marker of the National Senior Certificate examinations and was the Chairperson of the major professional body, the Association of Mathematics Educators in South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal sector.
In 2003, Professor Mudaly joined UKZN and his passion for teaching mathematics within the South African context for the South African student led to a specialisation in Mathematical Modelling, and the use of manipulatives to understand geometry. This created a fertile ground for excelling in the field of visualisation in mathematics, where he has firmly established an international profile.
Professor Mudaly has made a substantive and significant contribution through a cogent body of work in both visualisation and active learning in mathematics, and this is attested to by his authorship of more than 58 Peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. He has published in several international and high impact journals, such as The Montana Mathematics Enthusiast. In 2016 he was ranked among the Top 30 prolific researchers in UKZN, and received accolades for having achieved the first position in the School of Education. His commitment to developing and enhancing scholarship in the field is evident by the graduation of more than 36 PhD and Masters students under his supervision.
International collaboration with highly acclaimed researchers in Mathematics education from Illinois State University, University at Buffalo and University of Southampton serve as an endorsement of his research standing as a leading scholar. He delivered plenary addresses at many national and international conferences, including the USAID conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Recognition of his work nationally resulted in invitations to other universities to lead discussions on visualisation research and to engage in the work of the Special Interest Group in Visualisation and the Discussion Group held in Taipei and the Topic Study Group in Shangai in China. He served as the Associate Editor of the leading Mathematics Education journal in South Africa – Pythagoras and is a member of the Editorial Board of Learning & Teaching Mathematics.
Professor Mudaly’s work has far-reaching, significant impact on society. He was appointed to the South African Government Expert team to report on the effects of Covid-19 on Education, by The Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME), the Government Technical Advisory Centre (GTAC) and the National Research Foundation (NRF). He has served as the lead author of the Education Chapter of the Country Report on Covid-19.
Besides hosting annual research workshops for postgraduate students in the mathematics department, Professor Mudaly has also been invited as a guest lecturer internationally to conduct research workshops, especially in the area of qualitative research and analysis.
His expertise has been recognised through his regular invitations to comment on national television, radio and newspapers on current and urgent educational matters as an expert in the field.
Professor Shaun Ramroop
Qualifications: B.Sc Hons (Natal), M.Sc (UNISA), PhD (UKZN)
Even in a well-designed and controlled study, missing data occurs in almost all research. Missing data can reduce the statistical power of a study and can produce biased estimates, leading to invalid conclusions. This warrants the need to review problems and types of missing data, along with the techniques for handling missing data. The mechanisms by which missing data occurs are illustrated, and the methods for handling the missing data are interrogated within the ambit of flexible statistical modelling. The classical methods range from complete case analysis (CC), last observation carried forward (LOCF) and mean value imputation whilst the more modern techniques include Multiple Imputation (MI), Multiple Imputation via Chained Equation( MICE), Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) and Multiple Subset Correspondence analysis. The merits and demerits of the aforementioned techniques are also discussed.
Professor Shaun Ramroop is a Full Professor of Statistics. After completing his BSC (Statistics & Applied Mathematics) in 1995, he went on to complete is BSC Hons (Statistics) in 1996 and was employed as a Biometrician in 1997 at the South African Sugar Research Centre in Durban. His academic journey is outlined as follows: He was employed as a tutor at the University of Natal in 2001. Upon completion of his MSC in Statistics in 2002 with UNISA and he then obtained a PHD in Statistics in 2007 at UKZN. In 2007 he was promoted to Lecturer and then as Senior Lecturer in 2011. In 2016, he was promoted as Associated Professor and thereafter in 2018 he was promoted to Head of Department/Academic Lead of Statistics at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN) till 2020. At the end of 2020 he was promoted to Full Professor. One of the distinguishing features of his academia is that in 2015 he was given the award of “Distinguished Teacher” within the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science.
Professor Ramroop has graduated 25 MSC students and 6 PHD students as well as publishing more than 50 papers in accredited journals. His research areas include Biostatistics and Applied statistics in modelling and analysing business, health, education, environment, agriculture and social systems. In 2010 was recognized as one of the top 30 emerging researchers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has made significant contribution in applied statistics to the areas of malnutrition, anaemia, childhood obesity, interpersonal violence, forestry, service quality and entrepreneurship. His research has led to the application of novel models which consequentially gives meaningful inference to help the underwriting of policies and extending the existing body of knowledge in those areas.
From 2012 till present he was invited to act a judge by the South African Statistical Association in their annual honours project competition. This is a noteworthy position since he is able to gauge the standard of the honours project nationally. This would then enable the department of Statistics to set the correct research standards for the honours projects so that UKZN graduates are marketable and become sought after by external institutions and businesses.
Professor Ramroop is considered to be a problem solver to real world problems by using Statistics. From 2016-2017, He was the chief consultant/researcher to the Msunduzi Municipality in the “Living Conditions Survey”. His role involved training of fieldworkers, design of the survey, analysis of the results and presentation of findings to stakeholders in the Msunduzi municipality. He was also the chief statistician to the Greater Sekukne District municipality in their “Customer satisfaction survey” from 2012-2015 and the Silulumanzi Water projects from 2013-2016.
Professor Ramroop’s standing and recognition as researcher and academic are evident from the work he performs at a national level for leading, strategic education and research organisations in South Africa.
Professor Naven Chetty
The number of Physics graduates is declining rapidly with a consequence of dire shortages in key fields such as biomedical physics, geophysics and medical physics. Such shortages will have deep impact on research and development as well as economic growth. This talk focuses on developing strategies to increase numbers of graduates in Physics through strengthening of the school curriculum. Interventions are urgently needed at the level of high school for any impact to be felt at tertiary. The tertiary curriculum is also in drastic need of an overhaul which includes wider usage of Problems-Based Learning (PBL), technological learning (TL) and group learning (GL). COVID-19 has provided an ideal platform for much needed reforms in the teaching of physics with greater focus on graduate attributes and increased throughputs.
Naven Chetty is a Professor in the discipline of Physics. He obtained his BSc in Computational Physics and BSc (honours) in Physics from the former University of Natal in 2002 and 2003, respectively. On completion and by his insatiable desire for knowledge and passion for physics, he enrolled for his MSc in Physics in 2004 at the newly formed UKZN. The MSc was upgraded to a PhD in December 2006, not least because of the coherent body of work done but also for his exceptional research capacity demonstrated during the master’s program. He was then awarded a PhD for research in Molecular Optics in April 2009, on a thesis entitled “Measurement of the temperature dependence of the Buckingham effect (electric-field-gradient-induced-birefringence) in gases.”
From 2006 he was employed as a contract lecturer in the physics department in Pietermaritzburg. In 2007 he was employed as senior tutor on a fixed term contract in the newly established augmented program at UKZN to teach Physics. He was tasked as being the developer of the augmented physics module and many materials that he developed then are still in use today. In 2008, while still a contract employee, he was appointed the Assistant Dean of Recruitment for the Faculty of Science and Agriculture with his primary function being to increase student enrolment into STEM. Through many successful initiatives (many of which still run in the college today) he successfully helped increase the enrolments in STEM to help the Faculty to meet its enrolment targets. Based on this his contract was extended for another 2 years while he still taught on the augmented physics programme. In July 2010, he was finally employed on a permanent basis as a lecturer in the School of Physics while also still serving as the Assistant Dean, a role he held until the emergence of the college model in 2012.
He became a senior lecturer in 2014, and due to his educational interests and extensive knowledge on rules, procedures and institutional knowledge, he was appointed as the Academic leader of teaching and learning for the School of Chemistry and Physics in the same year (2014). In fact, Naven acted as the ALTL for more than 3 months in later half of 2013 while still only a lecturer, testimony to the high regard management had of his academic administration capabilities. He was later promoted to Associate Professor in 2017 and a Full Professor in 2020.
In 2015, he was head-hunted by the DVC of the College to head-up the access programme. At this point Naven had come full circle to head up the programme in which he officially started his academic journey almost ten years prior. His main tasks in this was ensure that the programme was resuscitated and to be financially viable. He was appointed as the College Dean of teaching and learning from 2017 to date. He sits on many national and international committees in his field in Physics as well as in the broader educational field. As part of his university service he sits on Senate, Council and the Fincom of UKZN. He also serves on the distinguished student and teacher award committees. Prof Chetty has been a reviewer for the Council for Higher Education from 2016 to date as well as an evaluator on the evaluation review panel at Umalusi from 2018 to date. In addition, he served as an Editor of the Open Physics Journal as well as a member of the various NRF accreditation panels. Naven is also a reviewer for a variety of journals and an examiner of programmes and theses of many Universities in Southern Africa and India.
Some notable awards and recognition
- C3-Rated Scientist, National Research Foundation (NRF), 2022.
- College Distinguished Teacher Award for 2015.
- University Distinguished Teacher Award for 2017
- Senior Member (Optical Society of America) 2019
- Incentive funding for rated researchers (IPRR) 2018, National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa
- Research Development grants for y-rated researcher 2021-2022, National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa
- Performance Awards (UKZN) 2013-2020
He has supervised 8 Ph.D. and 16 MSc graduates, with 2 summa cum laude and 7 cum laude. He has 44 peer-reviewed journal articles and 12 conference proceedings published. Against his name is funding received in the region of 6 million rand over the past 6 years, most notably funding for underprivileged students to pursue degrees. Professor Naven Chetty is recognized as a research scientist and a teacher in Biomedical and Experimental physics globally and he is passionate about growing Physics at UKZN.
Professor Oluwatosin Temitope Mewomo
In this lecture, we give a brief introduction and history to Banach algebras and notion of amenability. In particular, we show how the notion of amenability originated from measure theoretic problem, and how it moves to abstract harmonic analysis and then to the theory of Banach algebras. Various notions of amenability in Banach algebras are discussed with some characterizations and our contributions. In the second part of this lecture, we give a brief introduction to some notable fixed-point iterative schemes in some important spaces with applications. In particular, we show how iterative scheme can produce approximate solutions to certain classes of nonlinear problems, fixed points of some non-linear operators and zero-point problems and our contributions.
Professor Oluwatosin Temitope Mewomo is a Full Professor in the Discipline of Mathematics, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, College of Engineering, Agriculture and Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), Durban, South Africa.
Professor Mewomo received B.Sc. (Honors) Mathematics Degree from University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB), Nigeria in 2000 and won the United Bank for Africa Award as the overall best graduating student of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. He obtained MSc and PhD Degrees in 2004 and 2007 respectively, from the Department of Mathematics Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and UNAAB respectively with Distinction Grade in his MSc. He received the Ondo State Government Scholarship and Federal Government Scholarship for his MSc and African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative (AMMSI) for his PhD study.
Professor Mewomo joined the Department of Mathematics, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria, in October 2002 as a Graduate Assistant, and ascended to the position of Senior Lecturer in 2013. He joined the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, UKZN, Durban, South Africa in March 2015 as a Senior Lecturer and ascended to the position of Full Professor in 2020.
Professor Mewomo’s research area is functional analysis. In particular, Banach algebras, fixed point theory and applications to nonlinear and optimization problems. The main focus in his research in Banach algebras is the notion of amenability and its various manifestations. His research in fixed point theory cut across fixed point iterative methods for approximating the fixed point of nonlinear operators, nonlinear and optimization problems in Hilbert, Banach and Hadamard (complete CAT (0)) spaces. He has successfully completed the supervision of 14 Doctoral (PhD) and 22 Master (MSc) students, mentored 4 Postdoctoral Fellows and published over 180 research articles in Scopus and ISI indexed journals published by Springer, Taylor and Francis, Elsevier, De Gruyter and so on in these areas of research focus. He is currently supervising 5 Doctoral (PhD) students.
Professor Mewomo has examined a number of M.Sc. and PhD theses from University of Pretoria, University of Witwatersrand, UKZN, Botswana, Pakistan and India. He is a member of the Editorial Board of International Journal of Nonlinear Analysis and Applications (IJNAA). He is a reviewer for more than 20 high impact factor journals such as Numerical Algorithms, Optimization, Acta Mathematica Scientia, Computational and Applied Mathematics, Fixed Point Theory, Quaestiones Mathematica, Afrika Matematika, Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, Applied Numerical Mathematics, Bulletin Iranian Mathematical Society, Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, Journal Nigerian Mathematical Society and many more. He is a reviewer of American Mathematical Society (AMS) MathSciNet, zbMATH and Guest Editor of some Special Issues.
Professor Mewomo has been an invited speaker at a number of international conferences and workshops in the United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Sweden, South Africa, among others. He has had the opportunity of giving invited talks in several Universities, such as Queen University Belfast, University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, CoE-MaSS Wits, University of Cape town, Stellenbosch University, University of Wits, and University of Pretoria. He was one of the Keynote speakers at the 2017 International Conference, which was held at, Lahore, Pakistan, 2017. He was a visiting research to Queens University Belfast, University of Glasgow, University of Leeds, University of Dalhousie, University of Manitoba, University of Pretoria, University of Wits and African Institute for Mathematical Science, South Africa.
Professor Mewomo is a National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa C2 rated scientist since 2019. He was a recipient of the 2012 Research and Productivity Award of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria before joining UKZN. He has been one of the top 30 productive researchers at UKZN over the past three years consecutively, ranked 7th in 2018, 3rd in 2019 and 2nd in 2020. He has won severally the Deputy Vice Chancellor, College of Engineering, Agriculture and Science Research Awards. He is a panel member of Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), South Africa Research, Output Sub-Panels Reviewer and Evaluations of Scholarly Books and Conference Proceedings since 2016 to date. He was a recipient of the London Mathematical Society Scheme 5 Fellowship, National Research Foundation, South Africa, Incentive Funding for Rated Research (2019-2024), International Mathematical Union (IMU) travel grant and lots more.
Professor Mewomo is member of American Mathematical Society and Nigerian Mathematical Society.
Professor Ignatius Verla Nsahlai
Seemingly seamless is the nature of diet intake by ruminants; it captures some salient features of research by Professor Ignatius V Nsahlai. The discussion starts with two models on (1) digestible organic matter (DOM) required as by sheep in the tropical highlands and (2) his published methodology for estimating DOM intake of grazing livestock. His group further proposed a model for estimating methane emission where the level of feeding was in multiples of reticulo-rumen capacity. This model out-performed its immediate contemporary (R2 80.5 vs 60.5%). One enigma in diet formulation is the unknown daily intake. His research group developed a model using a multiplicative strategy for estimating the daily intake of diets by ruminants. In view of some shortcomings, his research group has tested and approved the model by Illius and Gordon based on its structure but the input parameters are being re-modelled. Is the research really seamless?
Family name: Nsahlai
First names: Ignatius Verla
Work address: Animal and Poultry Science, SASA, UKZN, PMB, 3209, South Africa
Email: nsahlaii@ukzn.ac.za
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
University degree/ Certificate | Subject of specialization | Year | Name of location |
Ph.D. | Animal Nutrition | 1991 | University of Reading, UK |
PG Diploma | Animal Production | 1987 | University of Reading, UK |
Maitrise es Science | Animal Biology and Physiology | 1985 | University of Yaounde, Cameroon |
Licence (BSc.) | Natural Science (Zoology) | 1984 | University of Yaounde, Cameroon |
Certificate | Project planning & evaluation | 1999 | University of Natal, RSA |
WORK EXPERIENCE
2007 Associate Professor: Pogramme Director/Acting HOD, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, S.Africa Address: Discipline of Animal & Poultry Science, UKZN, PMB Campus.
July 1996-Mar 2007 Senior Lecturer and Pogramme Director, UKZN, Pietermaritzburg, S.Africa Address: Discipline of Animal & Poultry Science, UKZN, PMB Campus.
July 2001-Jan 2002:
Visiting Research Professor: E (Kika) de la Garza Institute for goat Research, Langston University, Langston, OK., USA. Responsibilities: Determination of requirement expressions for goats.
June 1994-April 96
Associate Scientist. International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA) (now: International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Oct. 1991-June 1994
Postdoctoral Fellowship. International Livestock Centre for Africa (ILCA), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Main responsibilities: as above (officially but not practically excluding supervision).
July 1991-Oct. 1991
Analyst of animal Feeds. Berks, Bucks & Oxen (BBO) Farmers Ltd. Twyford. Reading. UK.
Main responsibilities: Analyses of feeds, determination of quality of wheat grain and farm inspection to assess level of contaminants.
1 Languages
English Excellent
French Fair (reads fluently but speaks to a limited)
International and Local Recognition
1. NRF Evaluation Panel Member, 2006; NRF selection committee Member, 2006;Reviewer of CGIAR Challenge programme for water and Food proposals; Mentor and Facilitator of the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Programme, 2004-2006; Sub Editor: South African Journal of Animal Science; Reviewer: Two Local journals and five ISI accredited journals; NRF Reviewer: Funding proposals and promotion documents; Reviewer of The United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Project proposal.
Supervision & co-supervision
1. Completed: 17 PhD and 30 MSc. candidates; On-going: 1 MSc and 3 PhD candidates.
PUBLICATIONS
1. Manual(s): 3; Book chapters: 6; Refereed journal articles: 138; Conference proceedings: 71
2. EXHIBITIONS: 3
Professor Desmond Wesley Govender
Qualifications: BCom (UNISA), BScHons, MA, PhD (UKZN)
Title: A Turbulent Learning Curve: Technology Integration
Date: 15 June 2022
Time: 15h00 – 16h00
The integration of technology is a continuous challenge in most organizations and industry. A recent survey, post the onset of covid-19, shows that Emerging technology adoption has a people problem and therefore one needs to get out of one’s own way to embrace change. This is true for the education sector as well.
As early as 2007, it became evident that, regardless of the amount of technology and its sophistication, technology will not be used appropriately unless educators have the skills, knowledge, and positive attitudes towards its use.
More than 15 years later, the same holds true and many are still researching technology adoption in education. How do we explain this phenomenon? Moreover, with ongoing technological developments, and the classroom having evolved into a seabed of technological advances, the big idea for education is finally here: How do we facilitate an exploration of new education approaches that reflect today’s students and 21st century skills?
Professor Desmond Govender is a Professor in Computer Science Education. After completing a teaching diploma he started his career as an educator in Mathematics and Computer Studies. During his teaching tenure, he continued his studies at UNISA and the former UDW where he obtained his BCom and Honours’ degrees in Computer Science, respectively. Thereafter, he lectured at the former Edgewood College for teacher education in Computer Science and then was appointed as Provincial Subject Advisor for IT in the Department of Basic Education in KZN. In 2002, he joined the former University of Natal in the School of Mathematics, Science, Technology and Computing discipline as a senior lecturer and obtained his Masters’ degree in Digital Media and PhD in information systems and technology at UKZN. He served as Head of School and assistant to the Dean for three years. He was then appointed to associate Professor in 2016, and later to Full Professor in 2020.
Professor Govender is an established NRF rated researcher who enjoys international recognition. He has supervised and graduated 16 PhD and 10 master’s students and published more than 75 articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals and in conference proceedings. He received three awards for research output from the College of Humanities (top 30 researchers – twice) and the School of Education (top 3 researchers) in 2018 and 2019, respectively. The niche areas of his research are Programming paradigms and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) integration in Teaching and Learning. Recently, his concentration has been ICT integration in teaching and learning in the 4IR.
Presently, he is adviser to Umalusi, Department of Basic Education (DBE), Independent Examinations Board (IEB) for the subject Information Technology in high schools. He is presently an external moderator for Information Technology (IT) in the country which involves ensuring that standards for IT of all examining bodies are maintained. This ties in with his involvement in teacher education for Computer Science.
His international collaborations and advisory services include Wellington Institute of Technology, New Zealand, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe and a Non-Governmental organization in Zimbabwe called SolidarMed, who are involved in an electronic health community programme. His role has been to advise on the structure and design of system software development. At Midlands State University, he was instrumental in offering Computer Science Education courses into their B.Ed. Curriculum.
Several bodies, including Ghanaian Government (as an accreditation team), NRF, and Computer Science Teachers Association based in the US have sought his expertise. Additionally, he has been called upon to present workshops on quantitative analysis in education research and statistics nationally to staff and students in faculties of Education of other universities, for example Rhodes University and University of Zululand.
Professor Desmond Govender’s standing and recognition as researcher and academic are evident from the work he performs at a national level for leading, strategic education and research organisations in South Africa.