Prof Jacek Banasiak, the Chair holder of the DST/NRF SARChI Chair in Mathematical Models and Methods in Bioengineering and Biosciences (M3B2) at the University of Pretoria (UP) recently received the good news that the Chair was successful in its bid for another five-year cycle.

'I am really pleased about the renewal of the grant and that I will be able to continue working in this field. I recognise, however, that this is not only my achievement, but an achievement of the whole excellent team of Principal Investigators and students, as well as of the first Chair holder, Prof Jean Lubuma, who set a standard for the group. I am proud to be his successor,' Prof Banasiak emphasised.

All applications were subjected to an assessment which involved a two-phase peer-review process.

The Dean of the Faculty Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Prof Jean Lubuma, also said that 'this is a considerable recognition of what this Chair has achieved to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at UP, specifically by increasing research capacity through the development of human capital and stimulating the generation of new knowledge, in accordance with the objectives of the SARChI Chairs initiative. We thank you for making this Chair a powerful instrument to strengthen the visibility of the Mathematical Sciences cluster at UP.'

Prof Banasiak is the Chair holder since January 2016 and prior to his appointment at the University of Pretoria, he was an Academic Leader: Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). During his tenure at UKZN he was also the Head of the School of Mathematical Sciences from 2005 to 2007 and a Senior Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics.

He authored/co-authored five research monographs and was also author/co-author of more than a 100 peer reviewed research papers. Prof Banasiak was a Visiting Professor at the University of Franche-Comte, France, in 2004 and is currently Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde since 2010.

In 2012 Prof Banasiak received the South African Mathematical Society Award for Research Distinction and in 2013 the Cross of Merit (Silver) of the Republic of Poland. In 2014 he was awarded the first prize in the competition for the best paper in Applied Mathematics organised by the Centre for Applications of Mathematics (Gdańsk).

He is the Editor-in-Chief of Afrika Matematika (Springer), an Advisory Editor of Mathematical Methods for the Applied Sciences (Wiley), an Associate Editor of Quaestiones Matematicae, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of Evolution Equations and Control Theory and of the AIMS Library Series of the Cambridge University Press.