It was another hectic day in the life of Sue Harrison, professor in chemical engineering and director of the bioprocess engineering research unit at the University of Cape Town (UCT). Flying in from Cape Town where she delivered a paper at the annual mineral processing conference, she arrived in Jo’burg just in time to collect this year’s top award in the Distinguished Women Scientist category.
Harrison faced stiff competition, but the judges agreed with the dean of the faculty of engineering at UCT, Professor Cyril O’Connor, who said in his nomination: “Prof Harrison is an outstanding role model for young women aspiring to careers in science.”
Internationally recognised as a leading researcher in bioprocess engineering, Harrison collaborates actively with researchers at several international universities, as well as with companies from the related industries.
“I come from a family of scientists and engineers, so I had the benefit of an early appreciation and understanding of the sciences,” Harrison says. She has advocated collaboration across the life sciences and engineering in research and education for the greater part of her career.
She enrolled for a BSc in chemistry and microbiology at UCT, where she excelled. She received scholarships for the most outstanding performance at the end of her first year of study, and for the best BSc graduate in 1983. She went on to do her BSc honours and was awarded a scholarship for best graduate.
With three illustrious British studentships under her belt, she obtained her PhD in chemical engineering at Trinity College at Cambridge, UK, and stayed on to pursue her postdoctoral research before her appointment as a senior lecturer in UCT’s department of chemical engineering.
Harrison has clocked up about 20 years’ experience as a researcher in applied microbiology and bioprocess engineering. Biotechnology, the exploitation of biological processes to produce commercially valuable products and processes, is regarded as vital to ensuring a sustainable future.
Harrison’s research has application in areas such as biomining, bioremediation studies, the production of fine chemicals and enzymes and bio-energy. These are focused on sustainable process engineering principles and inform studies on energy recovery from waste-water.
The government has identified biotechnology as a vehicle to generate wealth in the country and Harrison was one of the founding members of the Cape Biotechnology Initiative, the forerunner of the Cape Biotechnology Trust, one of the department of science and technology’s biotechnology innovation centres.
She has played an active role in UCT’s Research Council and was appointed deputy chair in 2005. She is one of only three women to be elected a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering.
Spurred on by South Africa’s need to train the human capacity required to establish a biotechnology industry of significance, Harrison has contributed extensively to developing the talent and skills inherent in our youth. To date, up to 35 MSc and PhD students have been awarded research degrees under her supervision and she is working with a group of more than 15 postgraduate researchers.
In addition to her research focus, she teaches actively in the chemical engineering and biotechnology programmes at UCT.
How does she juggle her career with family responsibilities? “The achievements of women frequently require holding the various parts of a big picture together, while balancing the demands of their families and professional lives,” she says.
“Being able to achieve this comes from an environment of a supportive family, one that provides the space for both women and men follow their dreams, while nurturing and providing for those around them.”