science stars issue 1

EXPLORING THE LIVES OF THEMASTER MINDS BEHIND THE WORLDS GREAT INNOVATIONS

From humble beginnings to dizzying heights The man behind the personality Periodic Table

MARCH/APRIL 2013 - ISSUE 1

Enabling Positive FuturesOld Mutual Foundation’s adopted group of learners from the Maths and Science Leadership Academy using chemistry kits to perform

T5593 Science & Maths Advert.indd 1 2013/03/01 1:10 PM

FEATURES

6 We have arrived

Here it is! The inaugural issue of Science Stars.

7 Editors Note

Born to succeed

8 The father of Science

A man who ran where few had dared to look

12 From humble beginnings to dizzying

heights

An engineer who has risen above it all

14 csir

16 Shanduka Foundation

Growing a culture of giving

1228

724

207

6Welcome to the 1st

issue of many

CO

NT

EN

T

Chairman Madambi Rambuda Managing Editor Evans Nyasha Manyonga

Art Director Nkabanhle Mawala

Contributors

Mbuyiseni Madi Prof. Azwinndini MurongaProf. Fulufhelo NelwamondoMawethu Justice Nyakatya

Sales Executive

Siyavuya Mhlanga

Copyright 2013 Roswika Media. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or any means,

electronically or mechanically,without prior permission.

Science Stars is published by Roswika Media - a member of the Shanduka Black Umbrellas

20 Shanduka Black

Umbrellas

Turning dreams into reality

24 Science Facts

The beauty of facts

28 Science Festival

Technology in practice

32 The man behind the

personality

Prof Muronga outlines how any dream can be realised despite adverse circumstances

16

32

14

6 www.sciencestars.co.za | March 2013

FOREWORD

Only those who dare to dream actually realise those dreams. If his-

tory has taught us anything as it rightly should, it is that your birth circumstances do not determine your future. Anyone can rise from humble and poor circumstances to unimaginable success. It is what you put in that determines where your life ultimately goes. Education is the key to success and Science Stars will focus on guiding you towards success.

We promise to entertain, educate and inform you about science and mathematics education. Science Stars will bring you inspiring, exciting and motivating stories, of ordinary people who have achieved extraor-dinary things. People who came from different backgrounds but were motivated enough to take control of their own destiny. Our opening piece is on the father of science himself, Albert Einstein. We get to know about this famous man as we look at the thinking behind the master of Science. A social

commentator of note we also list some of his most famous quotes. With an authentic mix of local and international, we look at some of our rare gems in the Science frater-nity. Among these is Prof Azwindini Muronga. His profile details how he came from herding cattle in the vil-lage to being one of the most highly renowned science Professors in the country. I hope in our inaugural edition you will find a friend in science- and education in general. A friend who will help you realise and be informed about the numerous opportunities available to you. It is never impossible to get into any university as long as you are driven and motivated. All you need to do is study hard, pass well and the rest including finance will be given to you. With education the world will become your oyster. A set goal is the master of motivation. Enjoy the enlightening journey

Evans Nyasha Manyonga Science Stars Editor

www.sciencestars.co.za | March 2013 7

EDITOR

ED’S NOTE

ED’S FAVOURITES

EDITOR

8 26 36

The enigmatic father of science. A lasting symbol of the beauty of an

art-form.

The indelible image from SKA repre-sents the power of science.

Born to succeed

Write to us: Upper East Side Unit 9B31 Brickfield Cape Town Or call us on 021 447 7197Email: [email protected]

Yet another career choice as the ex-pert opinion of Joel Guy takes us on a

revealing journey.

The FatherOf Science

A man who ran wherefew had dared to look

ALBERT EINSTEIN


Albert Einstein is widely regarded as the father of science in the modern era. At times controver-

sial, at times prolific and at times downright humorous. Loved by some and at one point described by one cartoonist as “The ultimate cartoonists dream”. He was a con-sistently brilliant scientist.

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, inWürttemberg, Germany, on March14, 1879. In 1896 he entered the Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich to be trained as a teacher in physics and mathematics. In 1901, the year he gained his diploma, he acquired Swiss citizenship and, as he was unable to find a teaching post, he accepted a position as techni-cal assistant in the Swiss Patent Offi ce. In 1905 he obtained his doctor’s degree. During his stay at the Pat-ent Office, and in his spare time, he produced much of his remarkable work and in 1908 he was appointed Privatdozent in Berne. In 1909 he became Professor Extraordinary at Zurich, in 1911 Professor of Theoretical Physics at Prague, returning to Zurich in the following year to fill a similar post. In 914 he was appointed Direc-tor of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the Univer-sity of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of

Theoretical Physics at Princeton.He became a United States citizenin 1940 and retired from his postin 1945. After World War II, Einsteinwas a leading fi gure in the WorldGovernment Movement, he wasoff ered the Presidency of the Stateof Israel, which he declined, and hecollaborated with Dr. Chaim Weiz-mann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Einstein al-ways appeared to have a clear view of the problems of physics and the determination to solve them. He had a strategy of his own and was able to visualize the main stages on the way to his goal. He regarded his major achievements as mere stepping-stones for the next advance.At the start of his scientific work,Einstein realised the inadequaciesof Newtonian mechanics and hisspecial theory of relativity stemmedfrom an attempt to reconcile thelaws of mechanics with the laws ofthe electromagnetic field. He dealtwith classical problems of statisticalmechanics and problems in whichthey were merged with quantumtheory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules.

Einstein made notable achievementsin his lifetime. In this piece we try togo deeper, seeking to understandthe man behind the personalitythrough some of his most famousquotes. For Einstein was more than abrilliant scientific mind; he was also an articulate social commentator.

THE FATHER OF SCIENCE

Imagination is more im-portant than knowledge.

“

“

ALBERT EINSTEIN


“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”

“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”

“The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”

“Anyone who has never made a mis-take has never tried anything new.”

“ Great spirits have often encoun-tered violent opposition from weakminds.”

“ Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“ Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by ageeighteen.”

“ The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”

“ The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”

“ God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He inte-grates empirically.”

“ The whole of science is nothing more than a refnement of every-daythinking.”

“ Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathologicalcriminal.”

“ Peace cannot be kept by force.It can only be achieved by under-standing.”

“ Peace cannot be kept by force.It can only be achieved by under-standing.”

“I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

“The only real valuable thing is intuition.”

“A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”

“ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.”

“God is subtle but he is not mali-cious.”

QOUTES10 www.sciencestars.co.za | March 2013

always thereand others who never stayed longenough at the school. Nonetheless aplan was made. After school him anda group of like-minded pupils wouldget together and work through theschool textbooks till late at night.If they couldn’t solve textbookproblems together they would always ask pupils who were in the class ahead of theirs for help or at times spend time with their maths teacher. There was an air of serious-ness from an early age in the way in which Mbuyiseni conducted himself and he believes that he could have gotten a higher mark than C for his matric if he had gone to a better school.With High School nothing’s evereasy, when Mbuyiseni looks backhe realizes that there will alwaysbe challenges and temptations inschool. “Nothing much has changedfrom the challenges we had. It’s justthat the challenges are in a differentform. There are a lot of things thatwill disturb you in school – but it

FROM HUMBLEBEGINNINGS TODIZZYING HEIGHTS

In 2004 South Africa produced 304 mining engineering gradu-ates, followed by Australia with

130, Canada with 127 and the united States with 35 graduates. However there still is a shortage of mining engineers in the country. It’s said that 85 percent of these BSc Mining Engineering graduates choose to work overseas for better pay and opportunities.

It’s Sunday afternoon and we’re seated next to one of these rare gems – a mining engineer – Mbuyiseni Madi. Wearing his Bafana Bafana T-shirt and shorts he leads us into his luxury apartment in Century City, Cape Town. It’s hard to believe that this young man’s roots are from Dumbe Mountain’s Paul Pietersburg inKwaZulu Natal, where he started off at the rural Bilanyoni Primary School and later did high school at Kanye Kanye. “You know when you are from a rural school the chances of you knowing exactly what you want to do are limited – I just knew I wanted to be an engineer” he reminisces as we asked him how and why he came to choose engineering. It was a fuzzy decision and made worse by the fact that his rural schooling was disrupted by teachers who weren’t

“You know when you are froma rural school the chances of youknowing exactly what you want todo are limited – I just knew I wantedto be an engineer”Quiz:

What is mining Engineering?

What does Mbuyiseni Madi currently do?

What helped MbuyiseniMadi pass high school?


ENGINEERING

is your decision to partake! It isour decision to drink, smoke, getpregnant – you choose” he says. After High School he went to Mangosuthu Technikon where he accessed books and read more about his area of interest – engi-neering. Although he had a strong math’s background engineering was where he wanted to go, but within engineering there are many streams such as Civil Engineering, Chemical

Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Mining Engineering. Mbuyiseni chose to do a BSc Mining Engineering degree at theUniversity of Witwatersrand (WITS).With such an in-demand qualificationwork was never scarce and his ca-reer kicked off with companies such as PetroSA and travelling abroad towork in Sudan and later returningto South Africa where he works forEngen Petroleum.In his current capacity he is theCorporate Health, Safety, Envi-ronment and Quality (HSEQ) Risk Manager for Engen Pertroleum – a job that requires careful attention to detail and assessing risks that arise in the petroleum work environment

as well as ensuring proper health and safety measure at work. In trying to find out how this links to Mining Engineering,Mbuyiseni explains that “When youare doing mining engineering thereare components of health and safetythat are taught and observed. It’s anintegral part of mining engineering,”as he tells us that with an engineer-ing job a person is not limited in terms of career options. But one thing’s for sure, choosing mining engineering was a wise decision, because it is in high demandwithin the engineering sector.South Africa’s department of min-erals and energy spokesperson, Jeremy Michaels, noted that it is “ex-tremely concerned about the short-age of skills in the mining sector. It is obviously crucial for the sus-tainability of the sector for us to develop and reclaim thenecessary skills.

ENGINEERING


CSIR researcher, Ivy Ndhund-huma is at the forefront of the photodynamic diagno-

sis technique that can be applied for early detection of cancerous cells. The aim is to be able to use this novel technique for early diag-nosis of skin cancer and treatment. “Cancer in general is a deadly disease,” she says.

The activities of the Biophoton-ics group are primarily aimed at the development and improvement of various therapeutic and diagnostic medical applications of lasers. This new innovative diagnostic technique relies on the principle of differential fluorescence emission of a photo-sensitive drug between abnormal and normal tissues in response to excitation by a specific wavelength of laser light within a visible spec-trum range.Ndhundhuma says that every human being has cancer cells in the body. “These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion to reach

the detectable size,” she says, add-ing that South Africa has the second highest incidence of skin cancer in the world after Australia due to high amounts of ultra violet (UV) radia-tion. “Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck recurs locally in nearly half of patients treated by surgical resection, radiation, and/or chemotherapy.”Malignant melanoma is the uncom-mon type, but most dangerous of all skin cancers as it may metastasize to other parts of the body such as liver, spleen and lymph nodes, she explains.Three things that keep Ndhundhuma on tenterhooks about this research are: the uniqueness of the photody-namic diagnosis; potential to reduce treatment costs; and saving lives. With this technique, cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage.“Most skin cancers can be cured if found and treated early,” says Ndhundhuma adding that in a coun-try such as South Africa, where skin cancer prevalence is high, lead-ing to direct and indirect medical

INNOVATIVE EXCELLENCE

CSIR researcher probes new laser method for cancer treatment


ALBERT EINSTEIN


CSIR

costs, early diagnosis research will undoubtedly save lives as well as the country’s costs and other social services in treatment – not to men-tion a significant reduction in human suffering, paralysis and mortality. “Early diagnosis is one of society’s most cost-effective medical inter-ventions,” she remarks.Working at the CSIR has enabled Ndhundhuma, through a National Research Foundation travel grant, to visit the Institute for Laser Tech-nology in Medicine and Measuring Engineering (ILM) at Ulm, Germany for training in advanced analysis of the applicability and efficiency of photosensitisers (drugs) applied for photodynamic cancer therapy using conventional as well as advanced biological cell and tissue models as they are applied at ILM.Her visit has led to the publication of a journal paper and to possible col-laboration with an ILM scientist. This paper appeared as a cover article of the August issue of the journal Med-ical Laser Application – a wonderful honour for Ivy on women’s month, given that she is also first author on the article. To encourage the col-laboration, the ILM Institute donated a Laser Scanning Microscope (LSM-410) which can be tailored for use in fluorescence applications.Ndhundhuma holds an MTech degree in biomedical science from the Tsh-wane University of Technology. She is currently registered for a doctor-ate at the University of Johannes-burg.Initially, she studied analytical chem-istry but her interest in the biomedi-cal field saw her changing career lanes. “The reason I am interested in this research is that I want to understand laser-tissue interaction technologies

and come up with a non-invasive modality for cancer diagnosis,” says Ndhundhuma. “This is a potential ap-plication to reduce human suffering and mortality due to cancer and the cost of cancer treatment.”Apart from her being married with three children, and being a female scientist, Ndhundhuma comments that working in a male-dominated field has not been easy - however, it is not necessarily difficult. “Anyone who is determined to achieve great things in life can and will make it eventually,” she concludes.


CSIR

The reason I am in-terested in this research is that I want to understand laser-tissue interaction technologies and come up with a non-invasive modality for cancer diag-nosis,

“

”Ivy Ndhundhuma

Social responsibility is one of the values that underpin Shanduka Group, and this is made evident through monetary investment and employee participation.

Launched in 2004, Shanduka Foundation is the vehicle through which the Cyril Ramaphosa-chaired Shanduka Group channels its social and community development initiatives. The foundation has three areas of focus: improving schools; incubating and mentoring black emerging small enterprises; and providing bursaries for needy and deserving students studying towards business-related qualifications.

These objectives are achieved through Adopt-a-School Foundation, Shanduka Black Umbrellas, and the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust respectively.

Ramaphosa started the Adopt-a-School Foundation after donating a fax machine to a school he attended as a young man and realised the myriad needs of this school and others like it. He then mobilised other individuals and companies to join him and contribute to the improvement of schools.

The decision to start the Adopt-a-School Foundation was based on the belief that children are our future and therefore, education will ensure a better future for all. Selected schools must have strong leadership and active community involvement. The aim is to improve the academic, infrastructural, social and security environment in schools, by ensuring that they have the necessary management and community leadership to create an environment conducive for teaching and learning.

Supporting small businesses has always been a key focus of Shanduka Foundation. This gained traction when the foundation was approached by Charles Maisel and Mark Frankel, who started the Black Umbrellas incubation centre in Cape Town, and were looking for partners. In partnering with

them, Shanduka Foundation capitalised the Johannesburg branch and mobilised other corporates to support enterprise development through this initiative.

As a result, there are today four Shanduka Black Umbrellas centres – in Cape Town, Johannesburg Pretoria and Durban. To qualify for incubation, entrepreneurs selected must have a proven level of skills and have a business idea that can be implemented immediately. Their business concepts must be past the conceptual stage. People with skills who want to start or grow their businesses are encouraged to apply.

The Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust programme was started using money raised by Ramaphosa speaking at different events to fund bursaries for deserving students. Academically deserving students who need financial support qualify for bursaries; additionally, they have to be studying towards a business qualification.

In addition to financial assistance, the students are mentored throughout their studies and have an opportunity to spend their holidays at Shanduka for experiential learning.

Importantly, Shanduka employees are fully involved in this initiative and all the company’s other CSI projects. Social responsibility is one of our values and is part of our mission – ‘Creating value and making a difference’. All Shanduka employees get involved and mobilise support for the work of the foundation wherever they go.

Every employee contributes financially to the Adopt-a-School programme and spends time mentoring students and enterpreneurs.

For a company such as ours that is just 10 years old, we believe we have made inroads in achieving positive developmental impact and making a difference for all our stakeholders – that includes our shareholders, employees, communities in which we operate and learners across the country – with 500 000 learners having benefitted from the Adopt-a-School Foundation.

For more information, call 011 305 8900

or visit www.shanduka.co.za

GIVINGGROWING A CULTURE OFSHANDUKA FOUNDATION:

BE

TELG

EU

SE

AD

VER

TIS

ING

336

6


SHANDUKA

The CSIR in South Africa performs multidisciplinary research and tech-nological innovation with the aim of contributing to industrial develop-ment and the quality of life of people in South Africa -- and increasingly on the wider continent. We employ people who are experts in their fields and passionate about creating a bet-ter future through science.

Who are we?Constituted by an Act of Parliament in 1945, the CSIR is one of the lead-ing science and technology research, development and implementation or-ganisations in Africa. The CSIR’s main site is in Pretoria, while it is represent-ed in other provinces of South Africa through regional offices.

Core focus on scienceThe CSIR transfers the knowledge generated through research activities by means of technology and skilled people. The generation and applica-tion of knowledge reside at the core of the CSIR. This takes place in do-mains such as biosciences; the built

environment; defence, peace, safety and security; materials science and manufacturing; and natural resources and the environment.

Emerging research areasThese are areas of science, explored by the CSIR, that could be unique to local circumstances or successful internationally and need to be es-tablished for local competitiveness. Examples include nanotechnology, synthetic biology and mobile auton-omous intelligent systems.

National research centresThe CSIR houses specialist facilities of strategic importance for African science. These include information and communications technologies; laser technology; and space-related technology.

R and D outcomesActivities include intellectual prop-erty (IP) management, technology transfer (for commercial gain as well as for social good), knowledge dis-semination and impact assessment.

CSIRMultidisciplinary research and technological innovation

PROFILE


Dr Sibusiso SibisiCSIR CEO

Consulting and analytical servicesThe CSIR has a group of facilities that manages standard technolo-gy-based services. The experts in this group utilise the value of CSIR knowledge application activities by providing specialised consulting, analysis and testing services to ad-dress the needs of clients. Services include forensic fire investigations, food and beverage analysis, environ-mental testing, engineering forensics, wire rope testing, mechanical test-ing, fires and explosion tests, sports technology and analysis, and project management.

Supporting national imperativesSouth Africa’s national imperatives and global challenges provide the macro-strategic framework within which the CSIR conducts its research. In an effort to contribute to placing our continent on a path of sustain-able growth and development, the organisation supports and actively participates in the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).The CSIR contributes to the national programme of development by:- Building and transforming human capital- Strengthening the S and T base- Performing relevant knowl edge-generating research and transferring technology and skilled human capital.

How do we operate?The CSIR receives an annual grant from Parliament, through the Depart-ment of Science and Technology (DST), which accounts for close to

40% of its total income. The remainder is generated from research contracts with government departments at national, provincial and municipal lev-els, the private sector and research funding agencies in South Africa and abroad. Additional income is derived from royalties, licences and dividends from IP management and commercial companies created by the CSIR. The parliamentary grant is focused on the knowledge base and facilities in the CSIR to ensure these stay at the leading edge of technological devel-opment. It is invested in developing new areas of expertise, undertaking ‘pre-competitive’ research too risky for the private sector to fund and for training young researchers. The CSIR’s shareholder is the South African Par-liament, held in proxy by the Minister of Science and Technology.

ClientsThe CSIR has clients in both the pri-vate sector (micro, small, medium and large enterprises; formal and informal), as well as in the public sector (national, provincial and local government). The organisation also deals with public enterprises and institutions, national safety and security establishments, and development structures. Re-gionally and abroad, the CSIR fosters partnerships and a network of clients and partner organisations as part of a global sphere of influence on matters of technology. The CSIR liaises close-ly with tertiary education institutions. With a strong emphasis on relevant and developmental work, it also has strong roots in various communities, and collaborates with a wide range of donors and funding agencies.


PROFILE

Dr Sibusiso SibisiCSIR CEO


PROFILE

SCIEN

CE FES

TIVA

L AFR

ICA


SCIEN

CE FES

TIVA

L AFR

ICA

Scife

st Afric

a 2013 w

ill cele

brate t

he 75

th ann

iversary

of

the C

oelacant

h. Thes

e “wond

er fish”

are m

ore close-

ly relate

d to lu

ngfish,

reptile

s and

mam

mals th

an the

common ray-finne

d fishes. T

hey ar

e found

along

the

coastline

s of t

he Ind

ian O

cean an

d Indones

ia. Sinc

e ther

e are

only tw

o species

of Coela

canth a

nd both

are th

reaten

ed, it

is

the most

endang

ered order o

f animals

in the

world. Coela

canths

were th

ought

to have g

one ext

inct in

the L

ate Cret

aceous,

but

were re

discovere

d in 19

38 off

the coast

of South

Africa. T

he

Coelacant

h is c

onsidere

d a “liv

ing fo

ssil” d

ue to its

appare

nt

lack o

f signifi

cant ev

olution o

ver the

past m

illions

of year

s. The

Coelacant

h is th

ought

to have e

volved int

o roug

hly its

current

form ap

proximate

ly 400 millio

n year

s ago.

The the

me sele

cted fo

r Scife

st Afric

a 2013

is “Scien

ce on t

he

move!” in s

upport o

f the

attem

pt by Bloodho

und SSC, U

K to

break t

he World

Land

Speed Record on H

akskee

npan, North

ern

Cape in 2

013/2014. T

he the

me will e

xplore

transp

ort and

any-

thing

that

moves! T

he Bloodho

und Projec

t is Brita

in’s la

test

attem

pt on t

he World

Land

Speed Record w

ith a

car capable

of 1,610kph.

The miss

ion is to

inspire

future

generat

ions to purs

ue scien

ce,

techno

logy, engine

ering an

d mathem

atics b

y showcasi

ng th

ese

subjec

ts in s

chools,

colleges

and un

iversitie

s.


SCIENCEFACTS

Provided by Scifest20

QUIZ

www.sciencestars.co.za | March 2013 25*Answers will be published in the May/June issue*

INDELIBLE IMAGE

INDELIBLE IMAGE

SKA Satellite Centre

EngineeringChemistryCareer

Technology

Personal JourneyMathematicsLife Sciences

Physics

Trains of Thought

ImaginationInnovation

Inspire

Work

Consider

Bridge

Travel

Discover

Lead

Drive

Solve

Analyse

React

Balance

ResultReachWeighMomentum

Measure

Light

CatalystReflect

Energise

Accelerate

Wonder

Grow

Succeed

Calculate

Harness

DreamCreateDare Absorb

Eureka!

Teach

Construct

ConnectDesign

Invent ProveHeritage

Logic

Streamline

Convince

Learn

Devise

Question

Balance

Explore

Test

AtomPlan

Develop

Apply Simplify

Modify

Respect

Improve

Experience

Read

Devise

Realise

Fascinate

Experiment

Heal

SearchObserve

Listen

Energy

Play

Network

Decide

Be

Method

Oops!

Challenge

Evolve

Prepare

Build

ChangeMove

Plan

Care

Progress

Shape

Diversity

Record

SKA

Life

Surprise


SCIFEST

The theme selected for Scifest Africa 2013 is “Science on the move!” in support of the attempt by Bloodhound SSC,

UK to break the World Land Speed Record on Hakskeenpan, Northern Cape in 2013/2014. The theme will explore transport and anything that moves! The Bloodhound Project is Britain’s latest attempt on the World Land Speed Record with a car ca-pable of 1 610kph.

The mission is to inspire future genera-tions to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics by showcasing these subjects in schools, colleges and universities.

FamleLab South Africa will kick off in South Africa for the first time in 2013. Regional heats and semi-finals will take place at various venues around the country, and the National Finals will take place at Scifest Africa on the 15th of March. The winner will repre-sent South Africa in the international FameLab final in the UK in June 2013.

FameLab is an international competi-tion dubbed “Pop Idols for scientists” running in 25 countries around the world. It seeks out new voices in sci-ence, technology, engineering and maths - developing science communi-cation skills and profiling role-models to inspire the next generations of scientists.

Scifest Africa 2013 will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Coela-canth. These “wonder fish” are more closely related to lungfish, reptiles and mammals than the common ray-finned fishes. They are found along the coastlines of the Indian Ocean and Indonesia. Since there are only two species of coelacanth and both are threatened, it is the most endan-gered order of animals in the world. Coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct in the Late Cretaceous, but were rediscovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa. The coelacanth is considered a “living fossil” due to its apparent lack of significant evolu-tion over the past millions of years. The coelacanth is thought to have evolved into roughly its current form approximately 400 million years ago. Lord Robert Winston will be one of our high profile lectures in the Lecture series section of the programme. Professor Winston is a highly es-teemed English professor, medical doctor, scientist, television presenter and politician. Professor Winston is the first Professor of Science and Society at Imperial College London, a university with one of the strongest international science bases that has long recognized the crucial impor-tance of improving communication and public engagement with science. He has various controversial and well received publications to his name such as including but not only, Bad Ideas,

The story of God, Human Instinct and That’s Life. He has several honors and awards including sixteen honorary doctorates.In celebration and support of the 150 years anniversary of the London un-derground tube this year, our Scifest Africa 2013 official poster is based on the London underground tube.

Science Festival 2013Science on the move


SCIFEST


STELLENBOSCH

What do you do for a livingI am the director of the Universityof Johannesburg’s Soweto ScienceCenter and I also lecture physics at the university.

Where are you fromI’m originally from a village calledLwamondo in Venda. But I also grewup in several others. After grade 10,I went to stay with my grandmother.While living there my uncle took methrough grades 11 and 12 at the bestscience school in Venda, Mbilwi HighSchool.

FamilyI come from a family that is not sowell-off. My parents worked on thefarms, in their own fields whichhelped them survive. I was the first togo further with school in my family,and as you can imagine, as the firstI was going for everyone. There areeight of us and only my sister and Iprogressed. Now the last born twinsisters Mpho and Tshilidzi are alsocontinuing with their education.

What motivated you in such a family set-upEven though our parents didn’tgo to school they emphasised theimportance of education. In our

The ManBehind TheePersonality

Prof Muronga outlines how anydream can be realised despiteadverse circumstances


PHYSICS

village it was known that you haveto be something, like a policeman, asoldier, a doctor, a teacher or a nurse.And in order for you to become thosethings you had to be educated. Iremember while I was growing upI had an aunt who only had grade7 who always made sure she wouldask me what I was doing and sheencouraged me.

What made you choose ScienceI grew up as a herdboy, looking aftercattle and the term science did notexist in my community. But as I grewup, and through going to school Ifound out that what I was doing athome was actually what we werestudying and it was called science.At first I used to ask my mom why webeen doing them all along. My momalso made home-made beer, andlearning about mixing chemicalsmade me think she was a scientisttoo. It was up to me to explore andverify things and make sure that thecommunity knows that they wereborn scientists. African people aremasters in science, but we just nevertermed it that way. So I decided if thatwas the case I should go and find outwhy science is called science.Role Models One of my role models is my high school teacher from Mbilwi Professor Mathamba who also taught me at the University of Venda .Anoth-er was professor Clemens a theorist who I met while I was at UCT, and eventually became my MSc advisor. Then there’s Larry McLaren a physi-cist who invited me to study in the USA. I was lucky to be nurtured and

supervised by peoplewho were my role models.

Role of Role Models?It’s very important and I’ve embarkedon a major programme in one of themost rural areas, Mopani District. I’vebeen talking to young kids from grade9 from about 230 high schools. Aftertalking to them I could see that forthem having seen somebody like mewho used to eat Mopani worms likethem, and have them ask themselvesif we have someone who’s gonethrough 1,2,3, and is now involved insome of the largest experiments inthe world, they start to think maybewe should go into science.School?After I finished my matric I did my BScat the University of Venda. I wantedto do medicine at Medunsa in Natal,and I was awarded a scholarshipbut I ended up losing it due anadministration problem. So I decidedto go back to the University of Vendaand register for the Pre- Medicineprogramme. After finishing my firstyear of BSc in Pre-Medicine as a

C student, I found that there wassomething more in science. Medicinewas a bit challenging so I transferredin second year and registered for fulltime BSc which would take me fouryears. I got the Kagiso fund, which is now called NSFAS because there was no money at home. With the Kagiso fund you were given 60% and you had to repay the 40% of the fees. I could even buy textbooks, which I didn’t even dream of. Before that I would actually stay on campus the whole night because there was no transport. So you either stayed behind and studied or you went home and not study because you didn’t have books.

In an exclusive Q and A with theScience Stars magazine ProfessorAzwinndini Muronga the Director

of the University of Johannesburg’sSoweto Science center gives

readers an indepth perspective ofhis upbringing and his career in

Science.


PHYSICS


TIMELINE

In these times when jobs are hard to come by even for university graduates, being able to de-

cide early on a career to pursue has become very essential. Ac-cording to the StatsSA recent labour survey, the unemployment rate has been hovering around 30%. Faced with this kind of statis-tic, for many prospective job seek-ers, making the right career choice becomes a daunting task. Students entering tertiary education also face huge challenges when try-ing to decide on what courses to study.

The pursuit here is not to offer some career guidance 101, but to take you off the beaten track and look at one of the less obvious career choices. We are going to hone in on meteorology. That’s right. The word meteorology in itself sounds kind of dull and, to some, even hard to pronounce, and to others, maybe immediately conjures the image of some boring weatherman or woman on your TV screens.

The term weatherman has now be-come nearly obsolete with more and more practitioners preferring to be referred to as meteorologists. And a meteorologist is just but one sub-species of a collective of scientists

called atmospheric scientists. There are at least three other main catego-ries of atmospheric scientists.

What are Atmospheric Scientists? Atmospheric scientists do the excit-ing, challenging and highly reward-ing work of studying the weather, climate and other atmospheric phenomena. From their analyses and findings they issue weather fore-casts or reports on climate or other aspects of the atmosphere.

Possible Atmospheric Scientists’ JobsAtmospheric scientists fall into various categories that deal with more particular aspects of weather, climate or the atmosphere in general. These are weather forecasters, gen-erally referred to as meteorologists, broadcast meteorologists, climate scientists or climatologists, research meteorologists and forensic meteo-rologists.

Weather ForecastersWeather forecasting has always been at the heart of meteorology or atmospheric science and meteorolo-gists make up the biggest number of atmospheric scientists. In the main, weather forecasting involves observing weather parameters, analysing weather data, producing

weather forecasts and presenting the forecasts to the general public.

Meteorologists in one country carry out routine observations of the atmosphere by measuring and recording atmospheric properties like temperature, air pressure and humidity. Since the systems that bring weather to one particular area are hundreds or thousands of kilo-metres in extent and move across national borders as they change, meteorologists in any one country also need weather data from other countries around the globe. As such, world-wide synchronised weather observations are made and the data is made freely available to all national weather services, through a tele-communications system overseen by the World Meteorological Or-ganisation (WMO).

In the formative years of weather forecasting, meteorologists would use any such data that would be available to them to draw up weather maps, and come up with a weather forecast. In these modern days of technological advance-ment, the measurements of atmo-spheric parameters made all over the world are used as the starting points of extremely complex com-puter programs that simulate the behaviour of the atmosphere. These computer programs, called Numeri-cal Weather Prediction models or simply, computer models, are run on super computers and have become increasingly accurate over the years. They predict the weather up to five or more days ahead.

Meteorologists use the guidance from such models together with data from satellites, local weather

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DREAMING WITH THE WEATHERYou may not like the weather but just wait a minute

radar and balloons as well as local observations of atmospheric param-eters to produce weather forecasts. Those meteorologists working for national weather services mostly develop forecasts which are dis-seminated through radio and televi-sion stations as well as the internet and print media for the general public. In addition, they also produce specialised forecasts for specific in-dustries like aviation, marine, farming, utilities and other weather sensitive businesses.

In private forecasting organisa-tions, meteorologists go through the same work processes as those in national weather services. But being more commercially inclined, private weather forecasting compa-nies mainly serve clients with very specific needs for highly specialised forecasts. For instance they develop forecasts for farmers of a specific crop, oil rigs, energy companies, transport companies or even sport-ing events.

Broadcast MeteorologistsWhilst a good number of person-alities giving you the weather for tomorrow on your TV or radio are simply broadcasters relaying weather information, there are others who are professional meteorologists. These professional meteorologists also produce weather forecasts like the weather forecasters discussed earlier, and are called broadcast meteorologists. They also create graphics which they use to present the weather on TV or through the internet, or scripts to present the weather on radio. Broadcast meteo-rologists make up only a small per-centage of atmospheric scientists.

Research meteorologists and climate scientistsSome atmospheric scientists may opt to study beyond the weather forecaster qualification to Msc or PhD level and become research me-teorologists or climate scientists.

Research meteorologists usually work in conjunction with other scientists like chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and environmen-tal scientists etc, to develop new methods of data collection, obser-vation and forecasting. They also conduct studies seeking to better understand complex and severe weather occurrences such as cy-clones, tornadoes and severe thun-derstorms. Others focus on environ-mental problems like air pollution and ozone depletion. Yet others work with mathematicians and computer programmers to develop new or improve existing computer models. Still others work with oceanogra-phers to study atmospheric and oceanic interactions which lead to phenomena such as the very impor-tant El Nino.

On the other hand, climate sci-entists, also called climatologists, study historical climate patterns and use them to predict future climate patterns years or even decades in the future. Climate scientists also work with computer programmers to develop climate computer mod-els. One main area of study in recent years has been climate change and global warming. This has seen climatologists working more and more hand in glove with other professionals in fields such as economics, settlement planning and

relief agencies, whose work is di-rectly impacted by shifts in climate conditions.

Some research meteorologists and climatologists can also become academics who teach meteorology courses at universities and colleges as well as to sailors and pilots.

Forensic MeteorologistsThese are again general weather forecasters whose main thrust is studying recent historical weather to determine its role if any, in such events as road and air traffic acci-dents or fires. Most work in collabo-ration with security agencies and are often called upon to testify in courts as experts.

The Work EnvironmentThe meteorology job market is very competitive, and, therefore, flex-ibility in working location and type of meteorology-related job will help your chances of securing a job. Me-teorologists will be found working in the public sector (national weather services, army, academic institutions etc) as well as the private sector (media and commercial companies).

In South Africa the South African Weather Service (SAWS), which is the country’s national weather service, employs a number of me-teorologists at its headquarters and other regional offices across the country. Most offices operate for 24 hours daily and so meteorolo-gists work on rotating day and night shifts. Most of SAWS’ meteorolo-gists carry out general public fore-casting as well as produce aviation and marine forecasts and other specialised forecasts.


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Meteorologists are also employed at academic institutions as lecturers and researchers. The University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria and University of Witwatersrand have very good atmospheric sci-ence courses in their geography and other related departments.

Private sector meteorologists work in small to large consulting busi-nesses, the media, universities, insurance companies and others. More and more private companies are increasingly employing their own meteorologists to cater for any spe-cialised weather needs their busi-nesses might have. One such sector is the media where TV stations are increasingly employing professional meteorologists.

How to Become an Atmospheric ScientistTo become an atmospheric scien-tist, one needs a strong background in physics and mathematics to de-gree level for most positions. There are two basic routes to becoming a meteorologist.

Either you study for a Bsc degree

majoring in mathematics and/or physics and then do an Honours degree or postgraduate diploma in meteorology. Else, one can study for a four year Bsc degree in me-teorology or atmospheric science. Some atmospheric science jobs are available that are suitable for people with qualifications in geography or environmental science.

In South Africa, the SAWS offers bursaries to aspiring meteorologists annually. The number of bursaries offered varies from year to year depending on budget. The bursa-ries are offered to undergraduates studying for mathematics and/or physics degrees. They will then go on to study for an Honours degree in meteorology. One of the bursary conditions is that beneficiaries will be bonded to SAWS for the number of years they have studied under the bursary.

To become a research meteorolo-gist or climatologist one will need a master’s degree at minimum, but preferably a Ph.D. In order to increase their expertise, some research me-teorologists go on to study other fields like oceanography, computer


programming, chemistry and en-vironmental science among many other fields, all depending on their field of research.

A number of universities in South Africa offer degrees in meteorology. These include University of Pretoria, University of Witwatersrand and University of Cape Town, which also have strong research programs and offer good master’s and Ph.D. courses.

In ConclusionSo, whilst the job market is appar-ently shrinking, making an informed career choice could spare many jobseekers a lot of frustration. One way to do so is to look into those areas that do not seem to be very popular. Atmospheric science, be-ing one of those not so enticing vocations, happens to be quite a rewarding and fulfilling engage-ment. One thing that draws many to atmospheric science and that many meteorologists share is the excite-ment and love of the weather and the challenge of understanding and forecasting it.

Remuneration for atmospheric sci-entists has not been discussed here because it varies greatly from coun-try to country and among organisa-tions. So, after all has been said and done, in choosing a career, although the monetary reward is vital, find-ing a meaningful career, or, finding meaning in your profession stays a very personal matter. And doing what you love is always fulfilling.

The author Joel Guy Chabata is a meteorologist and a weather pre-senter on the ETV channel. Joel has been in the industry for over 20 years

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