Student Achievements

2023

August 2023

                                             

The SACI Council has awarded Ms I Wessels a James Moir Medal for 2023. Congratulations Ms Wessels!

2022

November 2022

The annual Studentesimposium recently hosted by Akademia were attended by some of our students. Prizes were won by Hendrik van der Poll (2nd, oral), Bernice Currie (3rd, poster), Lauren Cajada and Luki-Marie Scheepers (Spell Checker). Congratulations to all!

September 2022

Shalene Bothma (PhD student of Prof Rademeyer) recently attended and contributed to the 44th International Conference on Coordination Chemistry held in Rimini, Italy (28 Aug - 02 Sept). A wide range of topics was covered in 7 parallel sessions!

Micke Reynders was the MSc winner of the UP Postgrad Research Day (VYT) competition. Congrats Micke! She will represent UP virtually in the international competition.  Please support by watching and sharing her 1-minute video:  https://tinyurl.com/2p9a9mue

Gizelle van Niekerk

Gizelle van Niekerk (MSc student of Prof Langmi) recently attended the 14th Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School (GCPSS) in Venice, Italy together with other notable contributors from IUPAC, UNESCO, IYCN, SASOL and Yale. Here is how she describes her experience:
I had the privilege of attending the 14th Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School (GCPSS) in Venice, Italy on full-scholarship. The scholarship was provided by OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) and GSSD (Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation). I am grateful to my supervisor, Prof Henrietta Langmi, and University of Pretoria for funding my fight to and from Venice. It was an honour to present our research at such a prestigious event with contributors from IUPAC, UNESCO, IYCN, SASOL and Yale. The opportunity was a life-changing experience and instrumental to my future career as a green-chemist. I was selected to collaborate with 11 authors from around the globe in writing an article stemming from the GCPSS, for publishing in Chemistry International (IUPAC) later this year. I was one of only two MSc students at the event, among 48 PhD students. It was exciting to engage with pioneers in green chemistry, such as Pietro Tundo and Paul Anastas. I managed to sight-see the romantic city of Venice where I visited the Rialto bridge; St. Mark’s Square; Doge’s Palace; the colourful houses of Burano Island; the glass-blowing island of Murano and Lido’s beautiful beaches. I am so grateful for every moment and have returned inspired to continue my pursuits in the ground-taking field of green chemistry.

March 2022

Congratulations to Nicole Neyt, first place winner in the #RSCEng category for an excellent ozonolysis reactor (Royal Society of Chemistry)

Congratulations to Lorinda van Wyk who was runner up in the #RSCEng category of #RSCPoster for the great contribution on greener microflow synthesis of bupropion hydrochloride! #flowchem (Royal Society of Chemistry)

2021

December 2021

Ané Kritzinger, a master’s student in the Department of Chemistry, is bridging the fields of chemistry and physics to develop an ultra-sensitive instrument for pollutant detection. 

Ané, who was awarded the James Moir medal from the South African Chemical Institute in 2020 for her academic achievements at honours level, has recently won prizes at national conferences in the chemistry and physics fields, where she presented her interdisciplinary MSc research. She received the award for the best MSc presentation in photonics at the annual conference of the South African Institute of Physics and was the runner-up for the best MSc flash talk at the South African Chemical Institute’s Young Chemists’ Symposium. Ané was also recently featured as a prestigious Trust Science Champion.

Read more here.

March 2021

Journal paper chosen as Editor’s Choice

A recent publication from the Department of Chemistry by Adedapo Adeola and Prof Patricia Forbes entitled “Advances in water treatment technologies for removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: Existing concepts, emerging trends, and future prospects”, published in Water Environment Research (a Wiley publication) was selected as the Editor’s Choice in March 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1002/wer.1420). In his Editorial entitled “The water industry toolbox” (https://doi.org/10.1002/wer.1528), Prof Baeza noted that “this article is a comprehensive review of existing and emerging technologies for remediation of PAH‐polluted water... the great variety of existing alternatives for water treatment and the efforts of many researchers to advance water treatment with new proposals”.

Adedapo Adeola

2020

October 2020

PhD Candidate included in The Analytical Scientist Power List 2020

Madelien Wooding, PhD Candidate under the supervision of Dr Yvette Naudé, was selected as one of the 10 leading minds from Africa for her pioneering work and passion. The Power List celebrates the tremendous range of talent, ingenuity and leadership present across all corners of analytical science.

For more information go to:

https://theanalyticalscientist.com/power-list/2020/africa/madelien-wooding

 

February 2020

UP master’s student wins South African Chemical Institute’s James Moir Medal

Wiehan Rudolph, a master’s student in Analytical and Natural Product Chemistry at the University of Pretoria (UP), has recently been awarded the James Moir Medal. The South African Chemical Institute (SACI) annually awards this medal to the best BSc Honours student in Chemistry at each tertiary institution in the country. To be eligible for the award students must have achieved a minimum final pass mark of 75%.

According to Rudolph, who is doing his MSc under the supervision of Dr Tim Laurens and Professor Vinesh Maharaj from the Department of Chemistry, “It is a great honour for me to receive this award. It gives me great joy to know that I am considered by SACI to be a top-tier student. This award inspires me to continue my endeavours toward completing my postgraduate studies to the utmost of my ability. I wish to thank SACI and all those that have made this award and my receiving it a reality.”

Rudolph completed both his undergraduate degree and honours cum laude at UP. He is no stranger to accolades having won the Department of Chemistry Prize two years in a row as the best first-year and second-year BSc Chemistry student. In his third year he won the Merck prize for the best third-year BSc Analytical Chemistry student and continued this winning streak in his honours year by scooping the Bruker prize for the best BSc Honours Physical Chemistry student.

His master’s research project focuses on poisonous plants which have found great importance in medicine over the centuries. According to Rudolph, “They have also made their mark in agriculture as a common cause of death in livestock. Inappropriate use of these plants, intentionally or not, has also caused many fatalities in humans. Confirming this to be the cause of death in an individual or an animal, however, proves to be difficult. Linking observed symptoms to the possibility of poisoning with plants is not always possible as physicians rely on the information of the patient’s possible consumption of poisonous plants. In the case of livestock, stomach contents and organ tissue need to be examined to confirm ingestion of the plant.”

He further explains that “the research will focus on developing a single, validated, analytical method for the detection of plant-based toxins in body fluids, such as blood and urine, based on mass-spectrometric analysis. Such a method will improve the diagnostic ability of hospitals and veterinarians when they are confronted with cases of poisoning, since rapid, accurate diagnosis of poisoning is vital. Accurate and reliable concentration assessments of poisons in both humans and animals are of vital importance to establish a more definitive cause of illness or death.”

Rudolph also completed a mentorship programme under the supervision of Dr JB Laurens at the Enterprises UP Forensic Toxicology Laboratory. He was also a laboratory demonstrator at the UP-SUNCOI (UP-Stellenbosch University Community Outreach Initiative) event in 2018 and 2019 under the supervision of Professor Marilé Landman at UP’s Chemistry department.

UP Honours student also wins South African Chemical Institute’s James Moir Medal

Ané Kritzinger was awarded the James Moir medal from the South African Chemical Institute for her academic achievements at honours level.

2019

December 2019

Dr Hanieh Montaseri wins SACI postgraduate award

Dr Hanieh Montaseri, who received a PhD from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pretoria in April 2019, was recently awarded a South African Chemical Institute (SACI) Postgraduate Award.

When asked what this award meant to her, Dr Montaseri answered that she felt greatly honoured to have been selected from a community of highly skilled chemists to receive this award for her doctoral research. She added: ‘I view this as a real encouragement and recognition of my hard work and passion for research. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Prof Patricia Forbes, for her support and guidance. This award will truly be the fuel that will propel me to achieve more and make significant contributions in my research career.’

Her research on the design, synthesis and application of quantum dot-based fluorescence sensors for the detection of pharmaceuticals and personal care products made a substantial contribution to the development of novel screening methods for the highly selective recognition of these pollutants in South African surface waters at very low concentrations.

Dr Montaseri, who completed her BSc and MSc (cum laude) at the Shiraz University in Iran, is a knowledgeable analytical chemist with experience in various analytical techniques and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Johannesburg, where she is doing research on the application of nanoparticles for photodynamic therapy of cancer. She is a member of the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) (2019); the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) and the South African Spectroscopic Society (SASS).

November 2019

UP master’s student wins prize for best paper at National Association for Clean Air Conference

Amanda Mahlangu, a master’s student in Chemistry at the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, recently won an award for the Best Student Paper at the 2019 National Association for Clean Air Conference (NACA).

The winning oral presentation was titled “Characterisation of semi-volatile hydrocarbon emissions from diesel engines” and was based on a study in which she analysed diesel exhaust emissions. The results of the study will contribute to our understanding of ground-level ozone levels and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation in South Africa. Both these pollutants affect human health and ecosystems.

“Receiving the award is a great honour as it meant recognition of the hard work that I have put into my project by professionals with great knowledge in my field and in the scientific community, and it motivated me to continue to work hard and strive to grow within my field,” an elated Mahlangu said about the award.

She said while choosing a career path can be very difficult for most young people, it wasn’t for her.

“I have always loved chemistry from a young age and was quite good at it in high school, so the choice to do it at a degree level was almost an obvious one. Completing the degree was not an easy task, however winning this award felt like validation that I made the correct decision, and that despite the challenges, following my passion was the best choice I could have made for myself.”

Mahlangu completed a bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry, majoring in both Biochemistry and Chemistry, and it was during these years that she developed a passion for research and analytical chemistry. After completing her undergraduate degree, she went on to complete an honours degree in Chemistry in 2017 and joined Professor Patricia Forbes’s research group in 2018, when she started her master’s degree.

She also won the Nico Nibbering Travel Award to attend the 4th International Mass Spectrometry School in 2019 and was awarded a UP postgraduate master’s research bursary as well as a Sasol bursary in 2018 and 2019.

“My MSc project is funded by Sasol and supervised by Prof Forbes and co-supervised by Mr P Schaberg from Sasol. I presented the results of the project at the National Association for Clean Air Conference, for which I won the award,” said Mahlangu.

Mahlangu’s research project focuses on characterising exhaust emissions from diesel engines using different fuels.

“I use portable sampling devices called denuders to collect diluted diesel exhaust emissions and analyse them using a thermal desorption-comprehensive 2D gas chromatography-time of flight mass spectrometry instrument which uses a high-temperature thermal desorber to transfer the collected analytes into the instrument, where they are separated into different chemical classes.

“My aim is to identify and quantify alkyl-benzene and n-alkane hydrocarbons, which are known to play a role in the formation of ground-level ozone and to determine the ozone formation potential of these compounds,” she said.

Mahlangu also investigates whether there are discernible differences in their emission as a result of fuel composition, fuel property, engine operating conditions, and exhaust after-treatment technology.

“The study addresses a major analytical limitation in characterising these emissions, and studies like it are important to help understand the ground-level ozone levels and SOA formation in South Africa,” she said.

 

Awards Archive:

- Author Anita Botha

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