Chemistry Professor Joins Elite Group of South African Scholars

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Professor Vincent Nyamori has been elected as a new member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), joining 44 other outstanding and celebrated scholars across the country to help meet the Academy’s mission of advancing science for the benefit of society.

New members of the academy, nominated and elected by the more than 700 existing members, will help meet ASSAf’s goal to provide evidence-based scientific advice on issues of public interest to government and other stakeholders, recognise and reward excellence, promote innovation and scholarship, enhance public awareness of and interest in science and science education, and promote national, regional and international linkages in the scientific academy.

ASSAf Membership is awarded in recognition of significant achievements in the advancement and application of science and scholarship, both nationally and internationally.

In the recent ASSAf membership awards, he was one of only three chemistry academics inaugurated, alongside UKZN alumnus Professor Patricia Forbes of the University of Pretoria and Professor Philiswa Nomngongo of the University of Johannesburg, a reflection of the strength of UKZN’s Chemistry programme.

Originally from Kenya, Nyamori completed his BSc in Physical Sciences at Egerton University, followed by his BSc Honours and MSc in Chemistry at the then University of Port Elizabeth. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (now Nelson Mandela University) and joined Wits University to take up a two-year postdoctoral fellowship after which he began his career at UKZN as a lecturer in 2008. He climbed the academic ranks to achieve promotion to full professorship in 2021, contributing to numerous committees at UKZN, serving as Academic Leader of Analytical and Physical Chemistry, and co-ordinating the UKZN Nanotechnology Platform for over a decade.

Nyamori is the recipient of the 2011 Vice-Chancellor’s Research Award, and in 2018 was named among UKZN’s Top 30 Published Researchers. He received the South African Chemical Institute’s (SACI) Merck Medal in 2020, awarded to a senior author of a paper published in the South African Journal of Chemistry in a specific field of chemistry that has made the most significant contribution to the discipline in a specified period.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom and the Royal Society of South Africa, Nyamori is also a Fellow of the SACI, of which he served as the President between 2017 and 2019. He was the first national Chair and initiator for the SACI Green Chemistry Division and the division’s treasurer. He currently serves as the Executive Treasurer for the Federation of African Societies of Chemistry and as the South African Representative to the Federation of Commonwealth Chemical Sciences Societies.

Nyamori chaired the Organising Committee for the NanoAfrica conference, held at Salt Rock in 2018, the Local Organising Committee of the fifth International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Green Chemistry Conference in Durban, and was the Chair of the Scientific Organising Committee for the 2022 Commonwealth Chemistry Congress in Trinidad and Tobago.

He has supervised more than 30 PhD students and master’s students and has published at least 181 peer-reviewed articles, five book chapters, and one patent, with over 4 800 citations. Nyamori is an Associate Editor for the RSC Sustainability journal published by the Royal Society of Chemistry in the United Kingdom and holds a C1 rating from South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF).

He is an expert in nanotechnology and nanomaterials science, as well as catalysis and green and sustainable chemistry. His focus is particularly on sustainable energy, utilising biodegradable biomass to synthesise nanomaterials for solar energy generation and storage, as well as sustainable carbon-based nanomaterials in catalysis and water remediation.

Nyamori aims his research at achieving solutions that contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly those focused on providing or promoting clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, responsible consumption and production, and climate action. He advocates for a circular economy approach to addressing the world’s pressing environmental and economic challenges.

His research has led to the development of chemical science solutions for enhanced sustainability, including novel catalysts, innovative water remediation adsorbents, and advanced fabrication methods using emerging technologies with eco-friendly nanomaterials, resulting in affordable Fourth-Generation Solar Cells with improved efficiency.

Words: Christine Cuénod

Photograph: Supplied