Young Researchers Award is given to extraordinary achievers in the field of research. This is based on the University’s strategic goals of achieving academic excellence, international competitiveness and local relevance.These are the exceptional researchers who were honoured at the 2022 Academic Achievers Awards for their outstanding work.

Professor Thulani Hlatshwayo, an associate Professor in the Department of Physics in the faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. His research is based on the understanding of the release of radioactive fission products from fuel in modern nuclear reactors – where chemical vapour deposited (CVD)-SiC is the main barrier to fission products – and on finding alternative materials for nuclear waste storage. His work is critical in the revival of nuclear energy as a clean energy source.

Professor Nedine Moonsamy, an associate professor in the Department of English. Her research on science fiction in Africa explores how an increasing number of artists and theorists take to African speculative arts and examines the discernible grappling with the influence and interruption of global form. As a lecturer at UP, she has helped bring out a new edition of Voices of this Land: an anthology of South African poetry in English (Van Schaik, 2018), which moulds undergraduate and postgraduate courses to focus more on postcolonial literature.

Professor Joel Modiri, Head of Department of Jurisprudence at the University of Pretoria, with his PhD thesis titled The Jurisprudence of Steve Biko: A study in race, law and power in the ‘afterlife’ of colonial apartheid. Professor Modiri mainly teaches in the field of jurisprudence and legal philosophy. His key research areas include critical race theory, African jurisprudence, law and identity, feminist political philosophy, black political thought, legal education and critical pedagogy, critical human rights and constitutionalism theories.

The focal point of his teaching and research relates to developing a critical anti-racist, post-conquest jurisprudence to contemplate possibilities for liberation, decolonisation and historical justice in South Africa and beyond. This entails drawing on several intellectual traditions and opening space for new knowledge that could disclose alternative conceptions of law, constitutionalism, history, justice, subjectivity, power, memory and politics. In addition to deepening his post-doctoral research on the theory and politics of Steve Biko, Professor Modiri’s current research projects include ‘Azanian jurisprudence’, ‘Decolonisation and Critical Legal Futures’ and ‘Thinking Race Historically’.

Professor Gustav Muller, an associate professor in the Department of Private Law, teaches a compulsory undergraduate module in property law and an elective in land and related reforms. He is the co-founder of the Property Law Reading Group with 33 members in South Africa and is also the co-founder of the International Resilient Property Law Group with 12 members. He was recently invited to join the Scientific Network on Eviction and Housing Rights (SNEHR).

Professor Edward Snelling is an associate professor in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology (Veterinary Science). Professor Edward Snelling is an experimental physiologist interested in the evolution of form and function among different groups of animals. His diverse interests have led him to devise novel methods, including flying insects in miniature bespoke flight simulators, swimming sharks in giant ocean-going “mega-flumes” and running mammals on large treadmills.

The University of Pretoria is proud of the research done by our professors and we encourage them to change the world through their novel findings.