Article by Corporate Communication [Rozanne Engel]
In pursuit of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) commitment to academic excellence and in recognition of SU academics who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their university careers, the institution has conferred the title of Distinguished Professor upon a group of 37 academics from across nine faculties. The group includes new appointments as well as re-appointments.
The Distinguished Professors are among SU’s leading academics who exhibit the ideals that SU pursues according to its Vision 2040 and the Strategic Framework 2019-2024.
The criteria for eligibility included: being appointed as a professor at SU for at least five years; continuous excellent performance over the last three years; international stature; proven exceptional performance and leadership in higher education in research and publications, postgraduate study leadership, learning and teaching, and transformative social impact.
The appointment is valid for five years and re-appointments can be considered.
Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of SU, has congratulated the new Distinguished Professors and said that the title of “Distinguished Professor” was created to recognise SU’s very best academics who have reached the pinnacle of achievement in their university careers.
“This initiative of appointing distinguished professors is a very important step in pursuing the excellence that we strive for. This is recognition for you, and confirmation of the University’s commitment to academic excellence, as reflected in the good standing that our institution currently maintains internationally,” said De Villiers.
Five academics in the Faculty of Engineering were amongst the group of 37. They are:
Prof Petrie Meyer (Re-appointment), from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He is Vice-Dean (Research) at the Faculty of Engineering. He has received five Rector’s Awards over the years and Stellenbosch University Chancellor’s Lifetime Award for Excellence over a career.
Prof Maarten Kamper (New appointment), from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. He has co-authored two books and has written over 200 peer reviewed research articles. In 2017, he received the Chancellor’s award at SU and the Research Excellence award in 2018.
Prof Gideon van Zijl (New appointment), from the Department of Civil Engineering. He is an award-winning researcher. Structural design guidelines for cement-based construction materials are being developed in his research group, the Centre for Development of Sustainable Infrastructure.
Prof Steven Bradshaw (New appointment), from the Department of Process Engineering. He received the Stellenbosch University Faculty of Engineering Lecturer of the Year 2016 and has over 1 500 citations to date. His research focus is on Mineral Processing, Hydrometallurgy, Machine Learning and Computational Fluid Dynamics.
Prof Johann Görgens (New appointment), from the Department of Process Engineering. He is the SARChI Research Chair in Sugarcane Biorefineries and is a core member of the NRF-funded Senior Research Chair in Biofuels/Bioenergy (CoER) since 2007.
