Dear UP staff and students,

I’m pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Sunil Maharaj as the Vice-Principal: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education, effective from 1 August 2022 for a period of five years. Professor Maharaj has been acting in this role since October 2021 and his appointment was preceded by a rigorous process which concluded with his election by the UP Council at a special meeting on 25 July 2022.

Professor Maharaj is a uniquely qualified and experienced leader in the research field who’s well recognised locally and internationally for his leadership in the Engineering field. Until recently, he was a Professor in the Department of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and IT (EBIT) at the University of Pretoria.

He has total experience of more than 35 years in industry as a microwave and RF design engineer, academia and consulting. He has extensive experience as an established scholar with international standing and commendable scholarly work. Professor Maharaj was appointed a full professor at UP in 2014 and has held several leadership roles, including Head of Department and has served two full terms as the Dean of EBIT, which is the largest faculty at UP and the largest Engineering faculty in Southern Africa. He holds a SENTECH Chair in Broadband Wireless Multimedia.

Professor Maharaj has been the first African Dean to be elected as the Global Engineering Dean Council Chair and assumed the Chair in November 2021. He has more than 170 international peer-reviewed conference and journal articles, two international patents and is the winner of ten national and international awards. His research interests are in broadband wireless communications focusing on 5G cognitive radio sensor networks resource allocation, OFDM-MIMO systems, wireless channel modelling and edge computing communications systems. He is the Immediate Past President of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers (SAIEE) and Chair of TuksNovation NPC Board, a hi-tech business incubator and accelerator.

He is a well-renowned researcher and has contributed significantly to postgraduate supervision, which is something he is passionate about. As Dean of the Faculty of EBIT, Professor Maharaj actively and consistently encouraged research collaboration between the Faculty of EBIT and other faculties, including the Faculties of Economic and Management Sciences, Health Sciences, Law and Humanities. He has demonstrated remarkable leadership in the transfer, commercialisation and industrialisation of technology as supported by the TuksNovation initiative and Engineering 4.0, which have both been recognised as flagship research platforms at UP, not just for the UP community but for various critical stakeholders in the advancement of the UP-research leadership vision.

Prof Maharaj holds a BSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Engineering (Electronic), MSc Operational Telecommunications and a PhD Engineering. He is a professional engineer registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA), a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers and a Senior Member of IEEE.

Please join me in congratulating Professor Maharaj as we wish him much success in his new role.

Kind regards,

Professor Tawana Kupe

UP Vice-Chancellor and Principal