The National Research Foundation (NRF) honoured 19 of South Africa’s top researchers at its annual President’s Awards, which were made in three categories: a lifetime achiever award, P-rated research awards and Arated research awards.
The lifetime achiever award went to Dr Mamphela Ramphele, former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (UCT) and now director of Circle Capital Ventures, a black empowerment company.
P-rated researchers are normally younger than 35, have held doctorates for less than five years and, on the basis of research early on in their careers, are considered future leaders in their fields. Only two awards were made this year to Dr Lawrence Hamilton from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and Dr Alexander Myburg, an adjunct assistant professor at North Carolina State University in the United States.
A-rated scientists are ‘unequivocally recognised by their peers as leading international scholars for the high quality and impact of their research outputs”.
The following professors were honoured at the awards: Beric Skews (Wits), Arthur Every (Wits), Robert Gous (UKZN), William Harris (University of Johannesburg), Patrick Eriksson (University of Pretoria), Duncan Mitchell (Wits), Harm Moraal (North-West University), Douglas Rawlings (Stellenbosch University), Jillian Adler (Wits), Clarke Scholtz (University of Pretoria), Patricia Berjak (UKZN), Darrel Comins (Wits), Belinda Bozzoli (Wits), David Schalkwyk (UCT), Hans-Peter Kunzi (UCT), Christopher Dugard (UCT) and George Ekama (UCT).