On Tuesday, 02 November 2021, the National Research Foundation (NRF) hosted the prestigious celebration of South African Research Excellence; the NRF Awards which recognises current outstanding achievements made by individuals and teams whose excellence has significantly advanced science for the benefit of society.
This year, 2021, the NRF hosted a hybrid event with limited in-person invitees at the NRF Albert Luthuli Auditorium in Pretoria and live-streamed to more than 500 virtual attendees.
One of the awardees at event was Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Chemical Engineering Doctoral student, Mr Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh. He has made the institution extremely proud for his contribution to the scientific knowledge and technological innovation, winning the esteemed National Research Foundation (NRF Award) for the 2021 NRF Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers in Engineering and Technology, also a newly approved research focus area by the DUT Senate on Smart Grids.
Mr Tetteh is currently pursuing a PhD with Green Engineering and Sustainability Research Group (GEASR) under the supervision of Prof Sudesh Rathilal (Deputy Dean of Engineering and The Built Environment, DUT) in wastewater treatment and the photo-reduction of carbon dioxide using an integrated anaerobic photo-catalytic system.
Speaking of his win, the ecstatic Tetteh said it was a pleasant surprise to be nominated for the NRF Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers in Engineering and Technology for the year 2021.
“This award will undoubtedly rekindle my enthusiasm to do more for the future generation as a researcher,” he said excitedly.
Prof Sudesh Rathilal, Deputy Dean: Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment shared his heartfelt congratulations to Mr Emmanuel Tetteh, saying that this is an excellent accolade that demonstrates his tremendous ability as a researcher.
“It is well-deserved and Emmanuel has proven his ability throughout his studies at DUT with the numerous research outputs and awards he has accumulated over the years. I am very proud to have supervised him through this journey and wish to have ongoing collaboration with him beyond his Doctoral qualification. Very well done, Emmanuel,” he said.
Tetteh also expressed his heartfelt gratitude to his able supervisor Prof Rathilal and his father in the Lord Pastor Obed Obeng-Addae (DApol, Ph.D.) for their fatherliness, mentorship, guidance, and profound directions in my life.
“Furthermore, I would want to express my gratitude to my research group for their teamwork, support, and encouragement, although there are many challenges ahead, we vowed given up is not an option,” he said.
Tetteh explained how he came to know of the NRF AWARDS, saying that the appeal for nomination for the 2020/21 NRF Awards came as an open call via DUT and the NRF portal, whereby he was encouraged and nominated by his supervisor, Prof Rathilal and endorsed by Dr Linda Zikhona Linganiso, DUT Director of Research and Postgraduate Support.
In terms of the criteria for the NRF Awards, Tetteh expressed that this award recognises outstanding research performance by final year Doctoral students from any discipline who are currently funded by the NRF. He conveyed that there are six awards nomination categories for one female doctoral candidate and one male doctoral candidate in each of the following knowledgeable fields; Humanities and Social Sciences; Natural Sciences; and Engineering and/or Technology were awarded.
“A win in the male’s category for the “Next Generation Researchers in Engineering and/or Technology”, I believe it’s another good news to the Green Engineering and Sustainable Research (GEASR) Group which was recently approved by the DUT Senate as a research focus area under the department of Chemical Engineering,” he replied.
Sharing her congratulatory message was DUT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (DVC) Research, Innovation and Engagement Professor Sibusiso Moyo, who thanked the National Research Foundation (NRF) for recognising the current human capacity challenge faced by South Africa.
“According to the NRF, Human Capacity Development pipeline is indicative of the NRF’s investment strategy, which is aimed at increasing the number of next generation researchers; improving student throughput; developing emerging researchers; and growing the number of established researchers. To this end, the NRF has recently introduced new award categories to recognise Next Generation and Early Career/Emerging Researchers for exceptional research performance. Congratulations to Mr Tetteh for the being awarded under this backdrop the “Next Generation Researchers in Engineering and/or Technology (male category)” which means a lot for Mr Tetteh but also reflects on the excellent work taking place in the newly approved research focus area by the DUT Senate on Green Engineering and Sustainability within the Engineering Faculty led by Prof Sudesh Rathilal. Excellence is part of our DUT ENVISION2030 Stewardship perspective and we expect all our people (inclusive of our students) to be exemplars of our Living Values,” she said jubilantly.
Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande also attended the ceremony virtually to congratulate the awardees.
“To illustrate our continued commitment to science, technology and innovation, the Department of Science and Innovation has developed a new policy framework on Science and Technology. The Decadal Plan on Science, Technology and Innovation will serve as an initial 10-year implementation plan from 2020-2030,” he said.
He further stressed that to practically demonstrate the Department of Science and Innovation’s capacity as a government working together with the National System of Innovation, they have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in line with the vision of the Decadal Plan.
“Our researchers committed their expertise and resources to developing solutions to the pandemic and monitoring its impact locally, but also contributing to the global body of knowledge,” said Dr Nzimande.
Tetteh revealed he is assigned as the principal investigator for an ongoing water research commission project (C2019/2020-00212) aimed at developing an integrated anaerobic-photocatalytic system for wastewater treatment.
“Also to synthesize, characterize and explore the potential application of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in wastewater treatment processes such as coagulation, anaerobic digestion (AD), advanced oxidation process as well as integrated systems. This project will contribute knowledge towards achieving technology deployment aspirations of the National Water Research, Development, and Innovation Roadmap as a fight against water-energy security in the country,” added Tetteh.
He will also liaise with academic staff in supervising and mentoring postgraduate and undergraduate projects in the department.
His advice to other DUT students who wish to study Chemical Engineering is to believe that God’s grace surpasses all other races and keep in mind that they are not competing with anyone while remaining focused and committed to their research project.
“Being a good researcher is not about how swiftly one graduates or how many articles one produces; rather it is about the novelty of the project and its ability to affect social-economic growth and development sustainably. Above all knowledge transfer from the laboratory to industrialisation should be their target,” he relayed.
Tetteh also gave more insight into his future goals and objectives in terms of his research, explaining that against the background of ensuring clean water and sanitation for all, as well as lowering greenhouse gas emissions via utilization of green energy; this project seeks to develop a smart integrated anaerobic -photocatalytic system for industrial wastewater treatment as a circular economy technology for wastewater management settings.
“Based on our lab-scale integrated system proof of concept, pilot scaling is considered possible for decontamination of industrial wastewater with the additional benefit of bioenergy recovery and wastewater reclamation for reuse,” he said.
Biography
Hailing from Ghana where he obtained his Higher National Diploma in Chemical Engineering from Kumasi Technical University, Tetteh won the Erasmus+ KA107 (ICM) which allowed him to spend a semester in the University of Valladolid, Spain where he worked on a nitrate recycling project to mitigate odorant emission in wastewater treatment plants.
Tetteh holds a BTech and an MEng (Cum Laude) in Chemical Engineering from South Africa’s Durban University of Technology (DUT). He has proved himself as an excellent scholar, winning the DUT Top Master’s Publisher and Dean’s Merit Award for the best cum-laude student in the degree of Master of Engineering and Top Academic Achiever and the Most Outstanding Performance within the Department of Chemical Engineering. Best Papers at the 2nd International Conference on Research Advances in Engineering, Science, and Management (Tech Insight 2019) held in Dubai, the Green Technologies for Sustainable Development-2021 conference held in India, and the international Conference on Advances in Sustainable Research for Energy and Environmental Management (ASREEM-2021) held in India are among his accolades.
He is also the recipient of the ENI Debut 2019 award for the Young Talent Researcher from Africa in a ceremony held in Rome, Italy and was presented by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
He has co-published 37 articles in journals such as Catalysts and Scientific Africa, and co-authored four book chapters with google scholar citations of 315 and H-index of 11.
Currently, Tetteh’ s Doctoral studies is in line with the world’s goal of ensuring clean water and sanitation for all, reducing greenhouse effects as well as switching towards renewable energy use. Furthermore, through the Water Research Commission project (C2019/2020-00212) in collaboration with the GEASR, Emmanuel is assigned as the principal investigator to synthesize, characterise and explore the potential application of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in wastewater treatment processes such as coagulation, anaerobic digestion (AD) and an integrated AD – photocatalysis process. This is to contribute towards achieving technology deployment aspirations of the National Water Research. Tetteh is also a mentor in his department and a member of the following professional bodies; Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA), South African Institution of Chemical Engineers (SAIChE IChE) and Young Water Professionals (YWP).
Pictured: DUT’s Chemical Engineering Doctoral student, Mr Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh, receiving his award at the event.
Waheeda Peters
