Professor Esther Akinlabi
Professor Akinlabi is the head of the Mechanical Engineering Science Department at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ’s) Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment.
She obtained her doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2011; her research was on friction-stir welding of dissimilar materials, in particular aluminium and copper, for tailored applications in electronic and electrical engineering.
Starting at UJ as a lecturer, she was promoted to the position of full professor in May 2016. Akinlabi is ranked among the top four researchers in the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment at UJ owing to her exceptional research publication output, supervision of students, and the attraction of external grants to the university.
In the past six years, her research has focused on the field of advanced and modern manufacturing processes like laser additive manufacturing, in particular friction-stir welding and laser material processing. Her other research work is focused on laser metal deposition and functionally graded materials of titanium-based alloys and other materials. Some of the studies she has been involved in focus on cladding titanium with titanium carbide for enhanced wear properties, the cladding of titanium alloy biological implants with hydroxyapatite for improved osteo-integration, and the cladding of Grade 5 titanium alloy with copper for improved corrosion properties for marine applications.
Akinlabi leads and supervises a research team comprising 28 postgraduate students and seven postdoctoral fellows. She has successfully supervised four PhDs and 12 master’s students. She has also authored/co-authored over 160 peer-reviewed publications and filed two patents. Akinlabi has served as a reviewer to many international journals and as a guest speaker at many academic forums. She is a Y2 National Research Foundation-rated researcher and a recipient of several research grants from inter alia the NRF (SA-Zambia Research Grant), the CSIR (various), TIA (R250 000), TESP-ESKOM (R120 000, two years), the National Science Foundation (US) and several UJ grants.
In 2014 Akinlabi was the recipient of the UJ Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Award for Innovator of the Year. In the same year she received the Excellence in Engineering and Technology in Academic Research Award at the Women in Engineering and the Built Environment Summit. She is a member of the South African Young Academy of Science and is registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa.