Prizes for physics students at SAIP 2023

In the world of academia, conferences serve a crucial role in advancing knowledge, fostering collaboration, and recognizing outstanding achievements. Among these gatherings, physics conferences stand as a vibrant platform for sharing knowledge and research findings, engage in discussions and celebrate breakthroughs. One of the most remarkable moments in a physicist’s career is receiving a prize at a conference. This recognition not only honours exceptional scientific contributions, but also serves as a testimony to dedication and the pursuit of knowledge. At the recent 69th South African Institute of Physics (SAIP) Annual Conference, three students from the Department of Physics at the University of Pretoria scooped prizes. Beauty Masola and Modisa Ntobeng from the Green and Clean Energy research group received the first prize for poster presentations in their category, while Bertus van Heerden from the Biophysics research group scooped a prize in the oral presentation category.

Beauty presented her work on carbon nanofluids for heat transfer due to their excellent properties. The carbon nanotubes dissolved in a solution exhibit excellent thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. Using X-ray diffraction, she was able to show that there was a difference between the pristine, functionalized and the decorated samples of the nanocomposites. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy was used to show different functional groups found in the three samples.

Modisa Ntobeng presented a poster on optimization of the hole transport layer in polymer solar cells using spherical silver nanoparticles. The absorption spectroscopy results demonstrated the integration of the silver nanoparticles’ influence on the absorption of the hole transport layer. In addition, X-ray diffraction results for pristine and different volumes of silver nanoparticles showed sharp peaks that corresponds to the face-centered cubic phase of silver. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy confirmed the existence of the spherical silver nanoparticles.

Bertus presented his work on real-time single-particle tracking, a state-of-the-art revolutionizing technique that uses light to detect individual molecules in live cells and observe their dynamical behaviour.

These prizes serve as a great encouragement to all South. African Institute of Physics (SAIP) students and especially the UP Department of Physics, that hard work gets rewarded.