Dr Henrietta Wakuna Langmi
Dr Henrietta Langmi works at the CSIR as a key programme manager and is principal researcher for the Hydrogen South Africa Infrastructure Centre of Competence. Before joining the CSIR in 2012, Langmi worked as a research scientist at the University of New Brunswick, Canada. She obtained a PhD from the University of Birmingham in the UK, where her research focused on developing zeolites and carbon nanotubes for hydrogen storage.
An internationally recognised specialist in the field of hydrogen storage, Langmi is highly regarded by her peers for her contribution to her chosen field, as well as her multifaceted efforts to promote hydrogen energy application and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Her primary research interests are in the fields of materials science and sustainable energy technologies, with hydrogen storage research at the core. Her current investigations involve the development of porous materials, chemical carriers, and high-pressure composite cylinders for hydrogen storage applications. Her research addresses an area of paramount importance by finding ways of ensuring the future sustainability of energy resources. Finding ways to store hydrogen more easily, at ambient temperatures and without too much added weight or cost would help hydrogen to reach its potential as a clean and sustainable energy alternative to fossil fuels.
Langmi is actively involved in the supervision and mentorship of students and researchers in her group, which comprises four researchers from candidate to senior level, four PhD and three master’s students, one intern and one vacation student. She has successfully supervised one postdoctoral fellow and recently graduated one master’s student. She has authored 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and three book chapters, and made 45 presentations at national and international conferences, as well as delivering 13 invited/keynote presentations. She has an h-index of 14 and has received over 1 124 citations. Her research has been published in some of the most distinguished periodicals in the chemical sciences, including Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Coordination Chemistry Reviews.
She was awarded the highly competitive Royal Society-DFID (Department for International Development) Africa Capacity Building Initiative Programme Grant in 2016 and is a recipient of many other awards.
Langmi is a review editor for Frontiers in Energy Research anda reviewer for several accredited journals. She has served as a panel member for National Research Foundation proposal funding, and is an examiner for master’s and PhD theses. She has a C2 rating from the NRF.
Dr Langmi also recently featured on the SABC programme Teenagers on a Mission, which teaches young South Africans about science and technology.