SUED-CHEMIE/CATSA GOLD MEDAL FOR THE BEST ORAL PRESENTATION BY A STUDENT AT THE CATALYSIS SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA CONFERENCE 2009 HELD IN NOVEMBER IN GOUDINI
Congratulations - Ms Alisa Govender of the Catalysis Research Group at UKZN Westville was awarded the Sued-Chemie/ CATSA gold medal for the best oral presentation by a student at the Catalysis Society of South Africa Conference 2009 held in November in Goudini (Worcester, Western Cape). She presented a talk titled “deactivation of supported copper oxide catalysts for aldehyde hydrogenation reactions”, which showed her initial results from her M.Sc. project.
The photograph shows Mr Johan Coetzee, the CEO of Sued-Chemie South Africa, handing Alisa both the gold medal and the floating trophy. Photograph 2 shows Alisa with her medal.
Congratulations to Nombuso Ndlovu. She has been awarded her Masters. The title is "Design, Synthesis and Screening of Novel Pentacycloundecane Lactam Derivatives as Potential HIV-1 Protease Inhibitors".
This was a research project that was assessed by Chemists and Biochemists due to its multidisciplinary nature.
This is the latest PG degree to come from the GGKM stable. Well done to Numbuso and her supervisors. Prof Kruger tells me that the compounds that she made shows some excellent potential and have been sent off for further testing.
Congratulations to Bavani Pillay and Grant Boyle; both have been awarded their PhDs.
Bavani's thesis is entitled "A study of Nickel Molybdenum Oxide Catalysts for the Oxidative Dehydrogenation of n-Hexane" and was supervised by Prof Friedrich. This work represents the last PhD to come out of the old labs at Howard College. I think that all her work was essentially done at Howard College and along with Neo were the last researchers at Howard College. Bavani left to work at Sasol before she had finalized her PhD and therefore had to struggle with bother her new job and writing up her thesis; never an easy task.
Grant Boyle's thesis "Synthesis of Camphor Derived Ligands for Applications in Asymmetric Catalysis". This thesis was done in the format of papers (of which there were a prestigious amount) and as far as I am aware is the first to come out of Durban in this format. Also, I think that this represents the first PhD from the GGKM (super) group. I looked up the publication record for Grant and I see 16 ISI rated articles, these have come out of his MSc and PhD work and represent a significant amount of work from a PG student. I am fairly sure that no other PG student has done this before.
Congratulations to both Bavani and Grant as well as their supervisors.
Congratulations to Favourite Zuma, she has been awarded her MSc. The title of her thesis is "Studies on Ozone Initiated Inactivation of Pathogenic Bacteria in Aqueous Systems". Her supervisor was Prof Sreekanth Jonnalagadda.
It is very pleasing to see a member of our technical staff having the dedication to complete an MSc whilst still carrying out her duties in the School, I am sure it will be an inspiration to a lot of people in the School.
If I had a number of wishes granted to me, I would have used one to see the smile on Favourite's face when she got her letter informing her of her "Award of the Degree of Master of Science". I guess I will just have to wait to see it at graduation to see that smile.
Well done Favourite.
Prof Andy Kindness (HoS)