The Durban University of Technology (DUT) continues to be at the forefront of research capacity development, which is in line with the ENVISION2030 Strategic Focus Area 2: Building research and innovation for development.
For Nomthandazo Precious Sibiya, she is the proud recipient in the category of Research Excellence Award for Next Generation Researchers. The announcement was made at the 2023 National Research Foundation (NRF) Awards gala event held the Capital Zimbali Resort in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday, 31 August 2023. This year, the awards were held under the theme: Celebrating 20 years of the SKA Project in South Africa.
The NRF provides funding to postgraduate students in order to address the skills shortages in the fields of science, engineering, technology, humanities and social sciences by increasing the possibility of retaining suitably qualified young scientists, thereby increasing the pool of researchers and knowledge workers in the National System of Innovation. This award recognises outstanding academic performance by final-year doctoral students.
In the welcome address given by Professor Mosa Moshabela, Chairperson of the NRF Board, he said that the NRF rating system upon which these awards are based provides them with a benchmark by which they, as a country, can measure the value as a global knowledge creator and benchmark with the rest of the world.
In his keynote address, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, paid homage to the NRF for its impact in the transformation of South Africa’s academic landscape. He further relayed that the NRF Awards represents a high standard of research excellence.
The Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Nomthandazo Precious Sibiya, a Doctoral student in Chemical Engineering is over the moon with her win.
“On the 12th of July 2023, NRF sent me an awarding letter and to keep it confidential until it was awarded. I shared it with my husband, my supervisor Prof Rathilal, mentor Dr Tetteh and my close sister Ms Gloria Amo-Duodu because I could not hold the excitement,” she said.
Sibiya added that personally she did not think she qualified because mostly this award is given to final PhD candidates where else she is in her first year of her PhD studies. However, she is grateful to DUT’s Dr Emmanuel Kweinor Tetteh who was the one that nominated her.
“I was selected to receive this award in the Engineering (female category). I received this based on my master’s degree output because I am in my first year of my PhD studies. All the hard work I put in the past three years are reaping,” she expressed jubilantly.
Sibiya was born and raised by her grandparents at Mangamazini Township at Folweni, Durban. She is a PhD candidate at DUT who holds a white belt in Lean Six Sigma and a certificate in project management. In 2018, she obtained her BTech in Chemical Engineering from the Durban University of Technology with a distinction (Cum Laude). She further attained her Master of Engineering (MEng) with Cum Laude plus a Dean’s merit in 2022. She has an international research experiment as an ERASMUS exchange candidate at the University of Valladolid in Spain.
She worked on a project named “Treatment of industrial effluent using specialized magnetized coagulants” throughout her master’s studies. Her master’s research was of exceptional quality, as indicated by six peer-reviewed journal publications and six papers presented at local (Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town) and international (Bangkok, Thailand) conferences. Her recent Google scholar citations are at 87, H-index of 3 and i10-index of 3.
Sibiya’s achievement of receiving the NRF Research Excellence award for Next Generation Researchers in the engineering and technology category this year marks the third consecutive win (2021, 2022, and 2023) for the DUT Green Engineering Research Group; a significant milestone and inspiration to the group.
She explained that DUT provided her with great opportunities to nurture her skills like providing seminars, writing retreats, organising research days where one can learn and gain presenting skills, hence making it easier to present at conferences.
Sibiya also gave credit to all the African people who have attained their doctoral degrees moving to being professors. “It shows that indeed ‘black child’ it is possible, and it can be doable. I want my kids to have their mother as their role model. I want them to be proud, I want them to explore more opportunities at a tender age, unlike me,” she added.
Sibiya is also proud of the fact that she is the first of three siblings to study at university level, and credits her success to her upbringing by her grandparents in Mangamazini Township in Folweni.
Professor Sudesh Rathilal, Acting Executive Dean: Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, sent his congratulatory message to Ms Nomthandazo Sibiya. “The award is well deserved and we, within the Green Engineering Research Group and the Faculty of Engineering and the Build Environment are extremely proud of her achievement. I have known her for a number of years, having being her lecturer during her BTech qualification and supervising her masters and doctoral studies. She is an exceptional scholar and I am sure that she will attain many more accolades during her career. I look forward to a long-lasting collaborative partnership with her even beyond her doctoral studies,” he said.
In terms of her PhD studies, Sibiya’s research focuses on the removal of heavy metals from wastewater using hybridized absorbents. “South African companies produce over 40 million metric tons of wastewater annually, threatening the environment and human health. A treatment solution for removing heavy metals from wastewater is through absorption, however, recovering these absorbents is challenging. Thus, magnetizing agro-waste absorbents for the removal of heavy metals will present a unique solution for treating wastewater for reuse, while mitigating zero waste,” she stressed. Her research findings will aid water (mining industries) and agricultural stakeholders in evaluating the economic viability of adsorption technology.
Sibiya professed that she wants attain her doctoral degree in record time. “This has put me on a spotlight hence, I should up my game,” she quipped.
Her advice to other students who want to follow in your footsteps is to love what one does.
“Even if you don’t have identity, education will wipe all your tears. It opens doors that you never knew in your wildest dream you will ever think you will enter. It is important to do what you love so that when the journey becomes hard, you will be motivated because you are doing what your heart desire,” she said.
Pictured: Nomthandazo Precious Sibiya and her husband Mr Khanyisani Dlomo at the award ceremony held in Durban.
Waheeda Peters
