Thokozani Majozi

Last updated
Thokozani Majozi
OMB
Born (1972-10-03) 3 October 1972 (age 51)
KwaMashu, South Africa
Occupation(s)Professor, School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering, Witwatersrand University
Dean, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Witwatersrand University
Title South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering
Academic background
Alma mater University of Natal (BSc, MSc)
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (PhD)

Thokozani Majozi OMB (born 3 October 1972) is a South African chemical engineer. He has been the Dean of Engineering and the Built Environment at the University of the Witwatersrand since 2021. He holds the South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering at the same university. His research focuses on chemical process engineering, particularly batch chemical process integration.

Contents

Majozi joined the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering as a professor in 2013. Before that he worked at the University of Pretoria from 2004 to 2013 and at the University of Pannonia from 2005 to 2009.

Early life and education

Majozi was born in 1972 in KwaMashu in present-day KwaZulu-Natal. [1] His mother was a teacher and his father was a post office clerk. [2] He attended Mqhawe High School in nearby Inanda, [1] and he matriculated as the top achiever in the province. [2] Although he had initially planned to become a medical doctor, he received a bursary from Anglo American to study engineering. [2] He completed a BScEng in chemical engineering at the University of Natal in 1994. [3]

In 1994, as dictated by his bursary obligations, he began his professional career as a junior process engineer at Unilever. [2] Thereafter he joined Dow AgroSciences as a senior process engineer in 1996, specialising in competency improvement. [4] While at Dow he met Professor Chris Buckley of the University of Natal's Pollution Research Group, who suggested that Majozi should return to the university for postgraduate study; under Buckley's supervision, he completed an MScEng in 1998. [2] [3]

In 1999, Majozi moved to Manchester, England to study at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology on a Commonwealth Scholarship. [2] He completed his PhD in process integration in 2002. [1] [3] Later the same year he joined Sasol Technology as technical leader for optimisation and integration; [4] he worked there until he joined academia in 2004. [2]

Academic career

In 2004, Majozi was appointed as an associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Pretoria. His research was initially supported by Water Research Commission funds given to Buckley, who transferred them to Majozi. [2] He was tenured as a full professor at the University of Pretoria in 2008, [2] and in parallel, from 2005 to 2009, he was an associate professor of computer science at the University of Pannonia in Veszprém, Hungary. [4] Later, from 2009 to 2012, he was the vice-president of the Engineering Council of South Africa. [1]

After nine years at the University of Pretoria, Majozi moved to the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2013, becoming a professor in the Wits School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering. [2] There he took up the South African Research Chair in Sustainable Process Engineering, with the joint sponsorship of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation. [2] In addition, he was appointed as board chairperson of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in 2015. [5]

On 23 September 2021, the Wits Council approved Majozi's appointment to a five-year term as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. He succeeded Professor Ian Jandrell in that position. [6]

Scholarship and research

Majozi's main research interest is batch chemical process integration. [4] He has focused in particular on the minimisation of industrial wastewater in batch processing; he was the first person to apply water minimisation techniques in batch plants. [2] The National Research Foundation rated him as a B1-level researcher. [1]

Honours and awards

Majozi has received three National Science and Technology Forum awards. [6] [7] He also received the University of Pretoria's Leading Minds Centenary Award in 2008, the S2A3 British Association Silver Medal in 2008, the National Research Foundation's President Award in 2007 and 2009, and the South African Institution of Chemical Engineers Bill Neal-May Gold Award in 2010. [1] [7] In 2021 the Water Research Commission gave him a Water Research Legends Award. [2]

On 25 April 2019, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa admitted him to the Order of Mapungubwe. [8] He received the award in Bronze for:

His outstanding contribution to science, particularly the development of a novel mathematical technique for near-zero-effluent batch chemical facilities which enables the reuse of wastewater; as a young scientist, more trailblazing is expected of him in the years ahead. [1]

Majozi is also a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, [9] and he is a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences, [10] the South African Academy of Engineering, the Water Institute of Southern Africa, and the Institution of Chemical Engineers. [3] He is an alumnus of the Global Young Academy. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the Witwatersrand</span> Public university in Johannesburg, South Africa

The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in the mining industry, as do Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand in general. Founded in 1896 as the South African School of Mines in Kimberley, it is the third oldest South African university in continuous operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malegapuru Makgoba</span> South African immunologist, physician, public health advocate and academic

Malegapuru William Makgoba is a leading South African immunologist, physician, public health advocate, academic and former vice-chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2013 he was recognised as "a pioneer in higher education transformation", by being awarded the Order of Mapungubwe in Silver.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transvaal University College</span>

Transvaal University College was a multi-campus public research university in South Africa which gave rise to the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Pretoria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Habib</span> South African academic

Adam Mahomed Habib is a South African academic administrator serving as Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London since 1 January 2021. He served as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 1 June 2013, when the term of his predecessor Loyiso Nongxa ended, and 1 January 2021. He is also a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg.

Patrick Bond is Distinguished Professor at the University of Johannesburg Department of Sociology, where he directs the Centre for Social Change. From 2020-21 he was professor at the University of the Western Cape School of Government and from 2015–19, distinguished professor of political economy at the University of the Witwatersrand Wits School of Governance. Before that, from 2004, he was senior professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where he directed the Centre for Civil Society. His research interests include political economy, environment, social policy, and geopolitics.

Thomas N. Huffman was Professor Emeritus of archaeology in association with the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. He specialised in pre-colonial farming societies in southern Africa. Huffman is most well known for his identification of the Central Cattle Pattern at Mapungubwe, a pre-colonial state in southern Africa. This, in turn he argued as the main influence in the formation of the Zimbabwe Pattern at Great Zimbabwe. Arguably his seminal contribution to the field was A Handbook to the Iron Age: The Archaeology of Pre-Colonial Farming Societies in Southern Africa (2007), which has contributed to the understanding of ceramic style analysis and culture history focusing on these groups.

Jan C. A. Boeyens was a South African chemist and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Pretoria</span> Public university in South Africa

The University of Pretoria is a multi-campus public research university in Pretoria, the administrative and de facto capital of South Africa. The university was established in 1908 as the Pretoria campus of the Johannesburg-based Transvaal University College and is the fourth South African institution in continuous operation to be awarded university status. The university has grown from the original 32 students in a single late Victorian house to approximately 53,000 in 2019. The university was built on seven suburban campuses on 1,190 hectares.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award</span>

The Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award is awarded annually by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. It is considered the top award for research on the African continent.

Johannes "Hans" van Leeuwen is educator, engineer, inventor, researcher, and entrepreneur. He is an emeritus professor of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering at Iowa State University and an entrepreneur in ethanol co-product development. His research and innovations have worked to solve various problems including, new water purification methods, a way of creating food and animal feed from waste, and a process in making the purest alcohol ever made.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of the Witwatersrand School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering</span> School within University of the Witwatersrand

The School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering is one of seven schools in the University of the Witwatersrand's Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. The School offers 4-year undergraduate degrees and post-graduate degrees in chemical and metallurgical engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit</span> Research entity at the University of Witwatersrand

The Industrial and Mining Water Research Unit is one of several research entities based in the School of Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It provides research as well as supervision to masters and doctorate students within the University, as well as consulting to industry.

Clarence van Riet Lowe was a South African civil engineer and archaeologist. He was appointed by Jan Smuts as the first director of the Bureau of Archaeology and was among the first group to investigate the archaeological site of Mapungubwe.

Claire Penn (1951–2018) was a South African speech and language pathologist, and held the endowed chair of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, and was a former senior research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council. She received the Order of Mapungubwe (Silver) in 2007, South Africa's highest honor, for her work in linguistics, sign language, child language, aphasia, and head injury.

David Glasser is a South African engineer best known for his co-development of attainable region theory and research into improving the efficiency of chemical processes. In 2001 he was the inaugural recipient of the Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship Award. He has also been awarded the Bill-Neale May Gold Medal by the South African Institute of Chemical Engineers, as well as the Science for Society Gold Medal from the Academy of Science of South Africa.

Jeremiah Edmund Bowden Jennings was a Professor in the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa and its head of department from 1954 until his retirement in 1976.

A. A. B. "Tony" Williams was a South African civil engineer with the National Building Research Institute and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. His primary contribution to geotechnical engineering practice was co-authoring the Revised guide to soil profiling for civil engineering projects in Southern Africa.

Pragasen Pillay is a South African electrical engineer known for his research in power engineering and renewable energy technology. He has been a professor at Concordia University since 2008. Before that, he was a professor at Clarkson University from 1995 to 2007. He was appointed as an honorary professor at the University of Cape Town in 2017.

George Adriaan Ekama was a Dutch–South African civil engineer who was an expert on wastewater treatment. Throughout his career he worked at the University of Cape Town, where he was professor of water quality engineering. He was a distinguished fellow of the International Water Association.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "The Order of Mapungubwe in Bronze: Prof Thokozani Majozi". The Presidency. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 "Thokozani Majozi: The ultimate problem solver". Legacy: Celebrating SA's Water Pioneers, Pathfinders and Mavericks. Water Research Commission. 2021. pp. 156–165. ISBN   978-0-6392-0251-8.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Prof. Thokozani Majozi". African Scientists Directory. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Thokozani Majozi". Wits University. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  5. ↑ "CSIR Board Chairperson bestowed with the Order of Mapungubwe". CSIR. 25 April 2019. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  6. 1 2 "Majozi to lead the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment". Wits University. 23 September 2021. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  7. 1 2 "NSTF winner changes thinking of the chemical industry" (PDF). Innovate. 6: 94–95. 2011.
  8. ↑ Rapoo, Tsholanang (2019-04-27). "Wits professor honoured with National Order". Wits Vuvuzela. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  9. ↑ "Members". ASSAf. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  10. ↑ "Majozi, Thokozani". The AAS. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  11. ↑ "Thokozani Majozi". Global Young Academy. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.