She comes to UP with much experience relevant to her new position, having most recently worked as the Programme Director for the South African PhD Project at the National Research Foundation. Prior to that she was the Programme Manager at the Research and Development Funding for the Department of Science and Technology Innovation Fund (IF), as well as Acting Executive Manager in the Research Development Directorate of the Medical Research Council.

Dr Nonkwelo originally comes from the Eastern Cape and studied for her first degree at Rhodes University. She received her Master’s degree in Medical Microbiology (Long Island University, New York), was awarded her PhD in Microbiology (Temple University, Philadelphia), and subsequently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee.

She completed an MBA (UCT) in 2003, focussing on attracting, motivating and retaining knowledge workers in South Africa. Dr Nonkwelo will be responsible for the strategic, coordinating and operational management of the Department of Research and Innovation Support in its role of providing research support, postgraduate services, academic research contracting and intellectual property management.

Kind regards

Prof SG Burton
Vice-Principal: Research and Postgraduate Studies