Prof Vinesh Maharaj, a natural product chemist trained in discovering new pharmaceutical ingredients based on biodiversity samples, is the Deputy Dean: Research and Postgraduate Education in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS).

Before this appointment, he was the Head of the Department of Chemistry from September 2016.

Prof Maharaj has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and has supervised to completion of several master's and doctoral students. He was recently awarded funding of over R35 million by the Department of Science and Innovation for the creation of a Biodiscovery Centre at the University. This includes establishing a high-end robotic system to create a repository of natural products, including compounds ready for high throughput biological screening programmes of pharmaceutical interest. Recently he joined a core team set up by DSI for the discovery of natural products for the treatment of COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-2).