Professor Usisipho Feleni's interest in science began at Khanyisa Primary School in Ndungwana Location, where stories told by her mother, a primary school teacher at a village school in the Eastern Cape, sparked her ambition to become a scientist.
Today, Feleni is a professor and the nanotechnology focus area leader at the Institute for Nanotechnology and Sustainability (iNanoWS) in the School of Science at the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Her research focuses on developing electroanalytical sensors for emerging environmental contaminants, including pharmaceuticals and pathogens such as Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19.
A central part of her work is developing easy-to-use, highly sensitive diagnostic and electroanalytical sensors that can contribute to women's health and environmental health. She also mentors and supervises younger researchers, particularly women. In 2021, she received a University of Michigan African Presidential Scholars Fellowship. She subsequently obtained a University of Michigan Stem Africa Initiative Collaborative Seed Grant, a Twas-Unesco Associateship Grant and a Visiting Senior Research Fellowship from the Women for Africa Foundation in Spain. In 2024, she was awarded a Young Female Scientist Programme in Japan, organised by Unctad and Okayama University.
Feleni's recent recognitions include the 2025 Atupa Award of Excellence in Research, the 2025 South African Medical Research Council Bronze Award, the 2024 National Research Foundation Excellence Award for Early Career/Emerging Researchers and Unisa's 2024 Women in Research Leadership Award.
She also received the 2022/2023 TW-Kambule NSTF Award for Emerging Researcher, the 2023 South African Women in Science Distinguished Young Women Researcher award and the Standard Bank Top Women Award for Top Women Leader in Steam in 2023.
Feleni is a C2 National Research Foundation-rated scientist.
She served as an executive member of the South African Young Academy of Sciences in 2023/2024 and was appointed an Organisation for Women in Science for the Developing World ambassador for South Africa in 2025.
She holds a PhD in chemistry, an MSc in nanoscience, a BSc Honours in chemistry and a BSc in chemical sciences.